looking for advice to mitigate inner groove distortion

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/uni-din-versus-l%C3%B6fgren-b-just-clarify according to Mikey's findings,  Stevenson alignment has the most distortion most of the time. Unless you're playing very long records you will experience the most distortion near the end of any album side.

Don’t forget to clean your stylus regularly too. A dirty stylus can seem okay outside the inner grooves.

Greg, the saving grace of Stevenson alignment is low distortion at inner grooves, compared to the two popular alternatives. One could argue about alignment all day but I strongly doubt that misalignment or Stevenson alignment can account for this problem. I’m now wondering whether motor is interacting with the cartridge as the two get closer to each other. To test this, with the platter spinning, pick up the tonearm and holding it above the platter but close as possible to it bring it over toward the spindle with volume control fully advanced.

Yeah lewm I also can't think of any alignment issue that puts a halo around horns. While I would like to nail down the overhang situation the halo and crescendo comment sounds more like mis-tracking to me. 

Adam, maybe double-check VTF and if not max maybe try a little more.