I am at the end of my rope, please help

Thank you all for the advice. This all happens before the phono stage so we can eliminate that as a problem. I think, based on how confusing this is, I may be having two problems at the same time. One looks like it may be a cartridge problem. When I use my meter to check the tonearm wires, the positive goes to positive and negative goes to negative BUT when I hook up the cart each wire goes to both positive and negative of the RCA plug. In other words, red lead goes to both positive and negative on the RCA plug and the green lead goes to both positive and negative on the RCA. The same thing happens on the other side. When I remove the cart and touch my meter to the the red and green pins I get a complete circuit. When I touch the white and blue pins on the cart I get a complete circuit. I don't think that should be happening. when I do the same to my backup MM cart I do not get a complete circuit. I am thinking that the cart has a short. Seems a little strange that it would be on both sides but my question is, Before I spend thousands on a new cart, is there any difference between a MM cart and a MC cart that would cause a complete circuit on an MC and not on an MM? Am I supposed to get a complete circuit?

It cant be the phono preamp. The tonearm cable plugs into the Fozgometer. The phono preamp and everything down line is not involved in this. My current theory is, I have two bad cartridges. Disregarding the ridiculously small odds that is possible. When I switch the red/green tonearm leads with the white/blue leads the stronger signal switches to the left side. I guess that could only mean I have two bad cartridges with exactly the same problem of a stronger signal on the right side. Makes no sense to me...

the problem has always been there but I always thought it was a room problem. It was not until I got the Fozgometer that I found out the problem was somewhere between the needle and the RCA plugs on the phono cable.

I have thought from the beginning that it was a tonearm cable problem. The Schroeder tonearms use very very tiny copper wire with a clear coating. The wire runs directly from the clips to the RCA plugs. The wire sticks out of the tonearm in two locations and would be very easy to damage. If some of the plastic coating was scratched off you would never see it, even with a magnifying glass.

Here is the problem; when I disconnect the cart, the meter reads perfect continuity from red clip to pos, green clip to neg on the RCA and white clip to pos and blue clip to neg on the RCA BUT when I hook up the cart, the red then has continuity to both pos and neg on the RCA. The green also has continuity to both pos and neg on the RCA. The same goes for the white and blue on the other RCA. This leads me to believe that the cart has the short. With the cart disconnected, I also checked to see if there was any continuity from each clip lead to the base of the tonearm, thinking that a wire may be shorting to ground, and found no problem.

I appreciate all the suggestions but I am not responding to some posts because people are not reading my posts. like suggesting this can have anything to do with the phono stage since it is not even hooked up. These readings are coming from the Phono RCA plugs. If you had read my last post I went into great detail about my SCHROEDER arm and how it is wired. I am using a digital meter for continuity and I find it an interesting theory that the higher voltage of the meter may be reading the small resistance in the cart as continuity. If that is true than I am completely back at square one. I have tried everything and nothing has worked so I am going to do this; I have ordered a new Lyra Titan i and will install it tomorrow. If I get the same reading than I will have the tonearm rewired. That is all there is in the chain so if those two things don't work I am going to throw the entire system in the ocean and take up another hobby.

I don't want to bother you guys anymore but here is the update. I purchased a used Titan with the idea that if it was not the cart I could resell for the same amount. I received the new cart and installed. Based on your advice, I have not used the meter on this cart and it has never been hooked up to my phono amp. The new cart reads exactly the same as the old one. Much stronger on the right side. I will get the rewired tonearm back on wednesday and install. I dont have a lot of hope that this is the solution because when I switched the clips the stronger signal moved to the left side. If the tonearm rewire does not solve it then there are only two options left, that I can see, the table or my setup. I would figure there was a problem with the fozgometer but I checked the calibration with my CD player and, beyond that, I can clearly hear it louder on the right side. I have to move the right speaker back about 8" to get a center image but that causes other sound problems.

I have the table and platter perfectly level but I thought that maybe when I ran the table the 60lb platter might be shifting on the magnetic bearing. I see no side to side movement. It seems rock solid. As far as set up, I am using the DR Feikert analog protractor with the Lofgren Geometry. I have confirmed the spindle to pivot for my arm with Frank Schroeder at 222MM and I am dead on with both that and overhang. I have moved the head-shell in both directions and Azimuth with very little change in the signal output. I can twist the antiskate all the way to the left and the channels will balance, right before the needle skips across the record toward the spindle.

I am going to move the table to another location. It is a big job considering the extreme weight but I will get some help and move it on Wednesday. I really wanted to figure this out but if moving the table does not work I will drive it down to the Analog Room in San Jose and see if Brian can figure it out.
Thank you so much for your assistance, You are all great!
Arlan

Thanks Ddriveman, I will take that into account. I am at 5db but that does get me closer. As far as my hearing, I have thought about that but My CD player is perfectly balanced. I have to pull my spiked speaker forward 8" every time I want to listen to CD's. Just FYI, I have had 3 people email me with exactly the same problem, one of them has three of the most expensive tables in the world and many arms but on one table, no matter what cart or arm he uses he gets 5db higher on the right side. His other tables read perfectly. Thank god I am not alone with this problem.

I have solved the problem! Thanks to Atmosphere and many others great advice, I have found the problem or two problems to be more accurate. I started checking all of the components and found a bad 5687 tube on the left side of my Steelhead, that explained why I was hearing the image shifted so far to the right. The second problem is the Fozgometer. I have now received 10 emails from people who had read this thread and have had exactly the same problem. It seems that the Fozgometer has a design flaw and does not work in all situations. One person that I have been emailing with has three tables and found the Foz works great on two of his tables but on the third it always reads much higher on the right side. He has also changed the arm, cart and cable numerous times and has tried many different manufactures but the Foz always reads the same. He is having none of the center image sound stage issues that would be obvious with a right channel 5-6 DB louder than the left. Thank you all for your help. It seems that I put too much confidence in a piece of measuring equipment and since it was confirmed by what I was hearing I was convinced it was right. It was wrong and once I found the bad tube I was able to move the right speaker forward to match the left, set the Azimuth by ear and now my sound is chilling!