Need troubleshooting help go easy on me... Newbie

Did you or an experienced tech. mount the cartridge? Correct alignment of cartridge is absolutely important. There are tools for this, but I'd rely on a really experienced tech. person.

It sounds like something related to your phono preamp. I notice you didn't mention what line stage preamp you are using. 1) As someone else mentioned, You can't plug the phono directly into the amplifier without a volume control. 2) You could have a bad tube in the 834P -- you could swap the respective channel's tubes and see if the distortion/loudness changes sides -- if so, you may need to replace the tube(s). 3) Perhaps the 834P is set to the higher MC gain position and you need to set it to the MM low-gain position. If you are on the MC position you are likely overloading the phono preamp. 4). On the "line-level" preamp you are using, make sure the EAR 834P is plugged into an "AUX" (Tuner or Tape inputs will work too) high-level input -- NOT "PHONO". If you plug the 834P into a phono input it will surely overload it. That's all I can think of aside from rechecking all the connections. Good luck, and let us know how you fare.

Already some good responses. Whenever I have had a problem which is different in the L-R channels I start at the source (in this case the Rega) and swap the two channels, and see if the problem reverses at the speaker. If not then I put the connections back , move one forward in the signal chain and swap again (the very last swap is the speaker cables). This will tell you where the problem is (turntable, phone, main amp, or even speakers) : it's whatever is driving the last cable you swapped. For example if swapping the cables between the Rega and EAR makes no difference, but swapping the cables between the EAR and the bryston alters the volume balance between the speakers then the problem is with the EAR.

Another very quick and easy test in your case would be to get a CD player (perhaps with a variable out) and connect it to one of the inputs of the Bryston amp ... if it sounds fine then the problem is somewhere in the phono chain, if it sounds awful then the problem is most likely in the amp and speakers.

The previous comment about NOT plugging the EAR into the phono input of your amp is also a good one (though I'm not familiar with your amp to know if it has a phono stage ... if it does then perhaps try plugging the Rega in directly .. this would be another test of the EAR).

Hope this helps.

There are several versions of the 834P. The basic is for MM only, the others work with MM and lower output MC cartridges. Check to make sure you have the correct match for your cartridge. A volume control is available on two of the 834P versions allowing them to be used directly with a power amp, without a linestage pre-amp.Otherwise you must use a seperate linestage (pre-amp).
Try www.ear-yoshino.com

Thanks. I have the 834P w/ volume control (both MM & MC) running directly to the amp.