tracking distortion on a p5 + rega cartridge?

The problem is now if you have actually damaged any records and so don't use any new ones for testing,as the damage does not have a magical cure.If you have something you can use for testing by all means try to get your adjustments right.I would go to the Van Den Hul cartridges site and look for their phono faq which you can download.It is one of the best comprehensive intros around.Mr.Van Den Hul recommends contact oil to improve the cartridge/tonearm connection.I would be wary of getting contact cleaner on the cartridge as there are delicate parts that might be affected by aggressive chemicals.

sigh...

well, installed a brand new Exact cart, aligned with geodisc (baerwald and cleaned the tonearm leads with caig progold.

Right channel distortion remains.

???

Sorry to hear about this.Obviously to my mind you have alignment issues happening.Have you checked your azimuth and overhang to see if they are correct? You can check with a level if the Rega arm's face where it meets the cartridge is perfectly flat.

Could be the phono, line stage, tonearm cable, etc. have you tried matching other electronics?

Todd

Did you try swapping the RCAs over at the phono preamp inputs to see if the problem is the turntable or the amp ?

You could also swap the channels at the cartridge to see if there is a tonearm wiring problem.

Alignment / VTA problems have always manifested as distortion in both channels for me, never in only one channel.