Clipping

The LP had the greater dynamic range by a considerable margin. I suspect especially the original Robert Ludwig MASTERDISC issue.

Try listening to Vanessa Fernandez "When the Levee Breaks." It's a 45rpm set of three records of her covers of Led Zeppelin songs. You're even able to hear the lyrics clearly, and she's a fine singer. Lots of the old standards on there. Highly recommended.

... Linn Sondek

That's the famous Linn sound....

Everyone, thank you for your feedback and response. When I looked at the setting tracking weight for the Koestsu black cartridge, it was set at 1.8014 grams which is on the low end of the recommended weight (1.8-2.0 grams). Adding a little more weight to 1.9 and a tracking force of 2.5 (although not sure why person who set up the cartridge had it at 2.7 grams).... This may have contributed to the clipping as it could have clipped / skipped dur to the energy being created between the vinyl and cartridge. WIll check later tonight to see if this helps. Anyone who has used a Koetsu black with  Ittok II tonearm would love to hear what you are setting your cartridge weight / tracking force at. Thanks again !

Hi. For those who are still reading this thread, here are the final results: changed tracking weight for the Koestsu cartridge to 1.9 with tracking force of 2.3, changed the Cary Audio SL-80 to ultrlinear mode (50 watts vs. 25 watts) and the cartridge load to 115 ohms and voila! No clipping even at 11 o'clock with a sound db level of 85. No distortion.  Hope this helps for those who are trying to get both Rock and Jazz from a low watt efficient tibe and speaker configuration. It can be done if you take some time to listen to the experts on this site and be patient!! Thanks again everyone.