Serious distortion from Rega RP1

Hi all,

Well, I've established that the cartridge is perfectly aligned according to a Rega Baerwald protractor I found online. I have no way to test the phono stage at this point (no other turntable to use as a baseline), but my hunch is that someone took a duster to the stylus or caught it on a sweater - could this be the cause of serious distortion? I've also ordered a stylus gauge to get a sense of where VTF is, because I've been reading that Rega's "plug and play" version of a counterweight system is not as accurate as advertised. As you say above, if nothing else I want to protect the records.

I ordered a new cartridge (Soundsmith Otello) so I can try to isolate the problem. It's also a good excuse to upgrade, and the new cart will come with me when I graduate from the Rega RP1 ;)

Good option...I would contact your dealer or who ever the merchant involved is...possible to return RP1 as well?...Its a very entry level model and sounds like you have the upgrade bug...however upgrading without so living the issue is risky...I too believe its connections...grounding..just my .02...good luck

I wish I could return the Rega, but alas I'm well passed the warranty period. Part of the reason for a new cartridge is simply to have another "baseline" with which to isolate whatever technical problem is going on here, which is difficult to do when I only have one phono stage, one set of cables, one cartridge, etc. So if this new cartridge solves the problem that's great, but if not I've further narrowed the list of what could be going wrong (with the added benefit of owning a very good cartridge). Thanks to all of you for your continued help, and I'll keep you posted.

If you checked alignment et al on the turntable, its got to be electronic. A few years ago I had a similar issue crop up and traced it to a bad filter capacitor in the prepreamp.