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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 4 responses by lewm

lewm
12,454 posts
 
GRG, A phono cartridge is a "reverse motor", in the sense that it converts the physical motion of the cantilever into electrical energy.  A motor takes electrical energy and converts it to physical motion.  That's the way in which the two can be viewed as opposites. If you don't like it, don't use it. I really could not care less, and I do not think anyone was confused by referring to the "motor".

"Transducer" is also a perfectly valid description of a phono cartridge; it takes one form of energy and converts it to another.  If you don't agree, then don't use the term.  A loudspeaker is also a transducer.  So is a microphone. Can you get off it, now?
I think I understand phono cartridges and the words I use at least as well as you do.
lewm
12,454 posts
 
 Most modern automobiles can go at least 10,000 miles between oil changes. Just so, it is no stretch of the imagination to think of a phonograph cartridge as a motor. It converts mechanical energy of the cantilever into an electrical signal. As in many motors, coils of wire around an iron core or other and permanent magnets are involved.In a way, it’s a reverse motor. It is no problem, when everyone knows what you’re actually talking about. No need to get hung up on semantics.
lewm
12,454 posts
 
mijo, I very much doubt your hypothesis, if you're implying that there is magnetic pull between the amplifier power transformer and the cantilever. Transformers do generate EMI (electro-magnetic interference) but not very much magnetism. And cantilevers are not ferrous.  Could EMI from the amplifier be degrading the sound? Yes, and maybe that is what you meant.  If so, sorry.  EMI usually causes problems by feeding back into the AC supply at the wall outlet.  Try plugging the amplifier into a different outlet, if it is now sharing with the turntable and/or phono stage.

Seems there are possibly two issues which may or may not be related.  The cantilever is not straight, but it was not straight for a long time before the sound went bad.  Possibly it bent past some critical angle and now is hopelessly out of line with the internal generator of the cartridge, or possibly EMI from the nearby amplifier (or some other undiscovered source of interference) is the culprit.  But anyway, the cartridge is now broken, is it not?
lewm
12,454 posts
 
Keep it for a mono cartridge.
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