Why does my vinyl sound so bright?

Cleaned the stylus, the mounting is visually good, and it measures properly. I'm going to take it (tonearm and all) tomorrow to a local shop to have it looked at, I'm relatively certain the stylus is damaged/significantly altered somehow. It sounds like rocks and water are running under it during playback, I don't know much, but I know this sounds like something much more than an alignment issue.

Thanks for all the help!

Shows that advice is great, good advice is better, and in the end you have to rely on your own perceptions and judgements anyway. Please let us know how it turns out, and best of luck.

Thanks Tobias, and everyone who chimed in. I actually learned quite a bit yesterday from all of your replies, so I'm a few degrees less of an imbecile (about my vinyl rig anyway) and one step closer to having it up and running.

One more quick thought, as to the wall shelf. I didn't really clarify well on that point. I moved the table in December, it has played and sounded fine many times since the move. The brightness, now rocks and water sound, was new in the last week or so.

So assuming the Blackbird might be damaged, It appears a retip on these is fairly pricey, any thoughts in the direction of the value/dependability of a retip versus spending $5-700 for a new cartridge?

If you like the Blackbird, consider having it rebuilt or retipped. I've just had two carts nicely redone by Peter Ledermann at Soundsmith. You could give them a call at (914) 739-2885 ( http://www.sound-smith.com/ for an idea of their rates ). They also sell cartridges, and would advise you.

Sounds like damage. Is the cantilever straight? If not, that would be an indication that the suspension is shot. If you have a 50x or higher scope for viewing the stylus you may find that it has been chipped. I suggest NOT playing any LPs until you figure this out.