TT Giving Me The Blues

[jls001]

My TT has been giving me the blues of late so vinyl listening has taken quite a back seat. There is a discernible distortion in the lower highs (like on the peak of vocal crescendoes), making even perfectly good recordings sound compressed at peaks and producing added and unnatural warmth to the musical proceedings. The rest of the audio band seem unaffected, and this has been driving me up the wall.

Two nights ago, I decided to do something and took out a ruler, a small torch and nice flat screw driver and examine the tonearm settings with a critical eye.

The first thing I noticed was that the VTA seemed all wrong - the arm was mounted low. Out came the screw driver to loosen the arm height. Lifted the height a bit so that the tonearm becomes parallel to the record surface. Did a re-balance, and played again. The distortion reduced considerably, but was still there.

Up next, I checked the overhang and found that it was about 20 mm, which is almost 3 mm more than receommended. So reduced it to 17.x mm (as per this article), re-balanced, etc and the distortion reduced further but still have not disappeared completely. I played around with weight and antiskate but not much change. Also tightened the arm rest bracket (which was quite shaky, btw). I have changed belt too with a new one.

I am now at loss what to check further. Any pointers what more I need to check?

One thing I forgot to check was whether the stand was properly levelled. Will check that tonight with spirit level.

FWIW, pivot to spindle distance is 218 or 219 mm (IIRC). Arm is ADC LMF2 with max 2 gm counterweight compensation and equal amount of antiskate compensation. 'table is TD 160 B Mark II (suspended, belt driven). Stylus is fairly new.

 

[sachu888]

My TT has been giving me the blues of late so vinyl listening has taken quite a back seat. There is a discernible distortion in the lower highs (like on the peak of vocal crescendoes), making even perfectly good recordings sound compressed at peaks and producing added and unnatural warmth to the musical proceedings. The rest of the audio band seem unaffected, and this has been driving me up the wall.

Two nights ago, I decided to do something and took out a ruler, a small torch and nice flat screw driver and examine the tonearm settings with a critical eye.

The first thing I noticed was that the VTA seemed all wrong - the arm was mounted low. Out came the screw driver to loosen the arm height. Lifted the height a bit so that the tonearm becomes parallel to the record surface. Did a re-balance, and played again. The distortion reduced considerably, but was still there.

Up next, I checked the overhang and found that it was about 20 mm, which is almost 3 mm more than receommended. So reduced it to 17.x mm (as per this article), re-balanced, etc and the distortion reduced further but still have not disappeared completely. I played around with weight and antiskate but not much change. Also tightened the arm rest bracket (which was quite shaky, btw). I have changed belt too with a new one.

I am now at loss what to check further. Any pointers what more I need to check?

One thing I forgot to check was whether the stand was properly levelled. Will check that tonight with spirit level.

FWIW, pivot to spindle distance is 218 or 219 mm (IIRC). Arm is ADC LMF2 with max 2 gm counterweight compensation and equal amount of antiskate compensation. 'table is TD 160 B Mark II (suspended, belt driven). Stylus is fairly new.

Did you align your cart properly?I think its an IGD problem.You can try two point cartridge alignment protractor available free on VE.This might help Setting Cartridge alignment using a Two Point Protractor - bkearns - Vinyl Asylum
Regards,
Sachin

 

[jls001]

Did you align your cart properly?I think its an IGD problem.You can try two point cartridge alignment protractor available free on VE.This might help Setting Cartridge alignment using a Two Point Protractor - bkearns - Vinyl Asylum
Regards,
Sachin

That's a lot of info to absorb. Let me try and understand it first.
Thanks for the pointer.

 

[stevieboy]

Hi Joshua,

I had pretty much the same problem. I'll describe it so you can judge if its the same or not. On high volume/peaks/crescendos, vocals used to distort more noticeably towards the end grooves. It drove me nuts since I aligned multiple times with the MintLp but nothing seemed to work. What finally seemed to be the problem was the cart itself cos when I changed it, it went away.

What worked for me on the old cart however was tightening the screws. I could hear differences in tightening. However this was an issue cos the screws were not long enough to protrude from the nuts on top. It might not be an issue for you.

Careful cart/tonearm and levelling helped reduce the issue.

If you have another cart, put it in and check, even though the stylus is new.

When you did your adjustments you mention overhang, did you adjust offset also to align with a protractor?

regards

 

[reubensm]

when a electrical device does not work, what do we check first...we check to see if it is plugged into the AC mains...don't know if I have read everything, but have you actually checked the stylus? have you tried another cart-stylus combo? these are also symptoms of a worn or damaged stylus...have you tried playing an older record with a few tricky grooves to check how the tracking is...do you hear a few skips? I would have taken out my protractor only after checking these

 

[jls001]

I do have some carts - will check if cart is culprit.

 

[jls001]

Just took a to-scale print of "stupid protractor" downloaded off vinylengine. This is basically Baerwald and Loefgren. Let me see if the nulls are OK.

 

[jls001]

I did the easiest thing - swap stylus to brand new one which had been used just once to try out. Viola, the distortion disappeared. So I sat down and listened a variety of records, forgettin all about all the tests I was supposed to do!

Anyway, to cut to the chase, there is some IGD. So I need to work on aligning again.

Now the funny part is when I swapped back to previous stylus, it's playing fine.

The only explanation I can think of is that while flipping the stylus protector up and down, the stylus attachment to the cartridge body would have become a bit loose, causing undesired vibration at some freqs.

For now I'm blissfully spinning Michael Buble's Crazy Love record

 

[reubensm]

I did the easiest thing - swap stylus to brand new one which had been used just once to try out. Viola, the distortion disappeared. So I sat down and listened a variety of records, forgettin all about all the tests I was supposed to do!

Anyway, to cut to the chase, there is some IGD. So I need to work on aligning again.

Now the funny part is when I swapped back to previous stylus, it's playing fine.

The only explanation I can think of is that while flipping the stylus protector up and down, the stylus attachment to the cartridge body would have become a bit loose, causing undesired vibration at some freqs.

For now I'm blissfully spinning Michael Buble's Crazy Love record

nice to know that you are back to enjoying your vinyl now, remember when you hear distortion ever again, check the stylus first

 

[Rajiv]

Hi,

The only explanation I can think of is that while flipping the stylus protector up and down, the stylus attachment to the cartridge body would have become a bit loose, causing undesired vibration at some freqs.

One of the most common tweeks back in the day was to remove the stylus flip guard. It is a source of vibration.

Grado uses a tiny bit of blutack like compound for a tight coupling between the cartridge body and stylus assembly.

Regards
Rajiv

 

[sachu888]

Just took a to-scale print of "stupid protractor" downloaded off vinylengine. This is basically Baerwald and Loefgren. Let me see if the nulls are OK.

Hi Joshua,
Once you download it and print it out, it is very important that you measure the "scale" and make sure it's printed at the correct size. Don't use the protractor unless it's printed to the correct size.

Regards,
Sachin