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I am at the end of my rope, please help

I have a problem that I can not solve and makes no sense to me at all.
My right channel is stronger than my left by a large margin. I can plug my tonearm cable directly into a Fozgometer (measures left and right output) and I get a substantially stronger signal on the right side. I confirmed this with my Voltmeter to make sure there was not a problem with the Fozgometer. So, as far as I can tell, this narrows the problem down to the Cart, Tonearm, Tonearm wire or the table.

Here is what I have tried:
1. Changed Azimuth in both directions. Small change but still much stronger on the right side.
2. Changed antiskating. Very little change.
3. replaced the cartridge. No Change.
4. replaced the tonearm and cartridge. No Change.
5. replaced the tonearm, cartridge and tonearm wire. No change.
6. I have used a second test record. No Change
My turntable is perfectly level.
I simply do not see how this is possible! I have an $83,000 system that I can not listen to. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

My system:
DaVinci Turntable > Lyra Titan i > Schroeder Reference tonearm > Manley Steelhead > Stealth Indra cables > VTL 450 amps > Stealth Mlt speaker cables > Vienna acoustic Mahler speakers
audioraider
sprog
37 posts
 
I slightly mis-read your post Audioraider, I thought you had tried connecting the Fozgometer directly to the cartridge pins, rather than just at the tonearm lead ends.

Try taking the cartridge off the arm and connect the Fozgometer directly to the cartridge pins (via some wire, if you can do that?). If the channels switch as you switch leads then it definitely is the cartridge, as I explained earlier.
smoffatt
205 posts
 
I had the same exact issue with a Dynavector XV1's last year. The right channel was louder. Switching the phono cable at the phono stage input, the left channel became louder. Looking at the styli with a 10X loupe i noticed that the styli was ever so slightly tilted. It appeared that the cantilever had rotated c-clockwise on its axis. I tried to fix that by adjusting/compensating with azimuth but to no avail. I ended up sending the cartridge to Soundsmith. Peter found that the cartridge was seriously flawed. The coils were rotated. He could not re-aligned the coils but was able to fix the problem, removing the styli and mounting one of his Optimized Contour Nude Line contact Styli. Sounds perfect now.

Note: i had bought the cartridge used so i could not use any type of warranty service with Dynavector. The cost for the repairs were approx. $400.00

Send it to Soundsmith and Peter Ledermann will tell you what's wrong with it.

lewm
12,459 posts
 
Audiorader, You are getting some questionable advice along with some good advice. Just do what Atmasphere has suggested, and you will likely be thrilled with the result. IOW, since it IS quite unlikely you have identical defects in two entirely different cartridges, you must first eliminate the much more likely possibility that you have a problem with your ICs, just as several others even before Atmasphere have suggested. This is Sherlock Holmes deductive logic.
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Gentlemen,

Please note that Audioraider indicated in his initial post that he has already replaced the tonearm wiring, as well as the tonearm itself (perhaps twice, if I am interpreting correctly). My interpretation of what he has said is that those replacements encompassed all of the wiring, from headshell to phono stage input.

Also, he appears to have stated in a subsequent post that he swapped channel connections at the cartridge pins, and the problem followed the swap.

Ergo, it seems to me that there are only two possibilities. Either both cartridges are bad, or some kind of error in the mounting, alignment, settings, or adjustments of the cartridges or the tonearms caused both cartridges to behave in a similarly incorrect manner.

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." -- Sherlock Holmes, as authored by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Best regards,
-- Al
hifihvn
943 posts
 
I don't know if this could be what happened.A lot of people just turn of the power switch when plugging or unplugging interconnects.A lot of the time,there is a voltage/current difference between the two components.If your plugging a RCA plug into something,the center pin may make contact first.This will feed that voltage/current difference to whatever that IC is plugged into. This could damage a cartridge coil,the gain stage at the input(especially solid state),from that voltage/current that may be there.It's always best to unplug everything first,before swapping cables,or components.I don't know if this is what happened,but if this was done,it could have damaged the coils.With winter,static electricity from us touching the RCA plug,catching a small spark,will also do it (damage) .Touch the metal case first,to discharge any static buildup we may have in our body.I hope its something simple,but just want people to give this a thought.
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