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Stylus not tracking and sounds terrible

I haven't used my TT in about 6 months due to a remodeling project. The TT was not moved, just not used. Yesterday I fired it up, tried to play some new vinyl, and ran into a problem.

The sound is terrible, shrill and scratchy sounding with no bass. The stylus randomly skates and hops. I tried playing a couple of records I know sound great but the problem remained.

The VTF, VTA, and azimuth are set correctly. I swapped out cables to and from the TT to the phono amp but still have the problem. I tried balanced and single ended cables to my pre from the phono pre.

I tried increasing VTF, playing with the VTA, disconnecting my subs, nothing changed.

The TT is a VPI Aries 1, Benz-Micro LO cartridge, Pass Aleph Ono pre. I've owned all of them since new or almost new so it all has some years on it but it sounded great before. Could the cartridge go bad in 6 months by just sitting there unused?

I had a similar problem a while ago and determined it was vibration/resonance from my room. I have the Aries sitting on a Ginko cloud platform now and it is pretty well isolated.

Everything sounded great the last time I played music on it. The only thing that changed was the location of the phono pre. It used to sit next to the TT but now my ARC amp is in that place. Could the tube amp be doing something here? The TT is right next to it on the same shelf.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
nolacap

Showing 5 responses by grgaudio

grgaudio's avatar
grgaudio
38 posts
 

Definition of motor: Device that converts electrical or other energy into mechanical energy or imparts motion.

The advisers that talk about motor inside a cartridge have no idea what is it all about.

 

The cartridge (in your case MC type) is very simple devise (by design) and very complex (by execution).

 

First- the moving part has only one joint (human hand with fingers has 27 joints). The rigidity of a cartridge joint supported by tension cable. The softness of a cartridge joint supported by 1 or 2 dampers. The dampers deterioration causes ALL sonic and physical properties of a cartridge become progressively worse. Different manufacturers using different damper material. They last for 1 to 10 years.

Stylus life is 500-2000 hours. If you play 2 LPs a day average life span of your cartridge  is 3/4 - 3 years. There is no magic of having the correct, good sound at all.

You have no doubt that you need to change oil in your car every 3,000 miles and tires every 50,000 miles. Cartridge need to be change every 3 years. If you invest into analog- this should be planned expenses.
grgaudio's avatar
grgaudio
38 posts
 

There is no such a thing as reverse motor, unless you invented one. If everyone understood the nature of a cartridge and related problem solving, there would be no such discussion. Your definitions of cartridge's motor make no sense at all and leads to more confusion. The MC cartridge has generator. That is plate with cantilever/stylus attached, that has wires( coils) wound around such plate/cross/ barrels. The generator movement creates magnetic fields that magnets transfer into signal. No motor or "inverted motor".

 

Generator definition, a machine that converts one form of energy into another, especially mechanical energy into electrical energy.

 

Your analogy with 10,000 miles would count if you present the proof that the modern diamonds are 3 times harder that they used to be.
grgaudio's avatar
grgaudio
38 posts
 
I can give you unlimited number of transducers that not related to electricity. 
A Temperature Transducer is a device that converts the thermal quantity into any physical quantity such as mechanical energy, pressure and electrical signals etc.
Bio transducer converts a biochemical signal to an mechanical, electronic or optical signal.
Chemical transducer, heat, nuclear, sound..
And so on.
grgaudio's avatar
grgaudio
38 posts
 
no... generator cannot be a transducer. Transducer is a device that converts one type of energy into another. Whereas generator is a device which convert any form of energy into electrical energy..
grgaudio's avatar
grgaudio
38 posts
 
it is too early on Friday to make statement that bike or boat is a vehicle.
I prefer to stay with my type of logic.
if you bring some info that suppose to be helpful or educative at least respect the readers. Your posts have nothing but flood gush.
Not interesting to have more discussion.
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