distortion on one channel with TT

Noticed some slighlty more than usual noise on one channel last night. It has been noticeable for a while but was that sort of is it or isnt it thing.
Last night i decided to try and track it down, process of ilimination, it appears to be the TT. Or rather the arm or cart i guess.
The distortion seems to be around a certain frequency, IE male vocals/mid bass type stuff.
Obviously i need to check the tonearm cableing (RB300 in original trim), but is it possible that the cart (Dynavector 10X4) could be causeing the problem?
If it is so, how can i test for this?

 

Hiya

I had a similar problem, was especially noticeable in a test LP that I bought. If you dont have one, Id get one .. it points out nasties like this.

NB I went to NETSOUNDS and bought a SURE TEST LP for about £5 - cos I didnt want to pay £30 for a hifi news one.

Anyway.... my problem was down to setup - the cartridge was leaning towards one side slightly (azimuth? cant remember) - which distorted one channel just like you're saying about yours.

With a fixed headshell, I believe the RB300 needs the use of shims to fix this if yours is wonky. As you probly know u can tell by looking at the reflection of the cartridge body in the vinyl and seeing if its exactly dead straight reflection of the cartridge... or wonky to one side....

Anyway, could be that, doesnt sound like a cable problem to me, but u never know..

Im sure the more TT ejukated will be able to say!


Chris

 

Cheers Chris
I should of said, i checked alignment and it seems ok (all beit a quick vis check) ill check balance tonight and do a proper alignment check

 

An overzealous anti skate setting could theoretically cause this. You could reduce the anti skate force to minimum setting to see if this improves things. Doing this may either:-

A: Shift distortion to the other channel
B: increase the amount of distortion.
C: Get rid of the distortion.

In the case of A you had too much anti skate force originally
In the case of B you had too little anti skate force originally
In the case of C you're sorted

having said this, anti skate is such a small force that adjusting it may do absolutely nothing in terms of perceiveable sound quality, in which case you'll need to look elsewhere for a solution.

HTH

 

Also it really is essential in this case to insure the deck is dead level.

I don't really subscribe to dead level for speakers or amps, as I feel as long as they are stable then things are OK.

But with decks, if its off kilter then that arm with what ammounts to a tiny pinpoint at one end is going to be under pressure one way or the other, espcially if the deck is left to right off balance.

Insure there fore that it is square, usualy by the platter.

Then its too the bias, as the above says if its well out then so will the sound.

Weight will have an impact but usually will screw the sound equally both sides if its wrong and everything else is right.

Check alingment (carefully) and be espcially suspisious if the sound is screwng up towards the centre of the record. I think it fair to say you will always battle this problem but the effect can be minimised.

Finally does it occur on absolutly all records?

I ask because I have bought many hundreds of second hand records which appear to be mint. However if they have been played only say 10 times with a screwed bias or whatever in general the record is f**ked.

A case in point for me is reocrds bought new from swanky shops which allow the records to be listened to, usually on too bit technics record decks with a cartridge which is clearly out of allignment (usually attached with gaffer tape to stop it being stolen) In cases like this ask if they have an unplyed copy, in my opinion it really can effect it badly, I have a 'new' fila brazillia on record which can't really be played because of distortion in one channel

 

Thanks for the ideas ppl
Ill try some tonight,
The TT is defo level.
It apears on most records, only the few very good condition ones i have dont exibit the sympton (or not audibly)
Ill check with a gauge and then recheck anti skate

 

And of course - check the stylus is clean!

When I had the 10x4 Gold on my Rega 3/RB300, end-of-side/channel distortion was very minimal - the 10x is a fantastic tracker in my experience.

I'd say that both antiskate and alignment need to be checked.

When buying second hand records, I've come across the odd few that have been played by a badly worn stylus on an autochanger; you can hear the last bit of the last track on each side getting noticeably more worn and scratchy sounding.