A pitch too High!

However, I did exactly that and was getting distortion. So I found that by adjusting the anti skate so that the needle stayed in the center of the laser disc and without drift, that this gave me distortion free results. Do not set your anti skate this way until you've tried doing it as described above.

@terrible You can see that depending on the arm you might get different results. A person that I know that makes the Triplanar arm once told me that there really isn't a standard for anti-skate settings. So what works fine for one arm may not for another. So don't regard this comment is contradiction so much as the point that you might have to goof off with this setting to see what works best for you.

 Why do you guys want me to buy a new Grado stylus.

I'm was not suggesting any such thing.

I misread the situation and had thought you got a different cartridge and thus solved the problem. Re-reading I see now that it was gauge instead. Either way I'm glad you got it sorted- good work!

What should one look for?

It should look nice and smooth like you see of photos of syli online. It sits on a little platform of sorts and should be perpendicular to it. Usually they are swaged or glued in. I'm thinking there may be an issue with it- since your new cartridge seems to work so well.

 

@terrible +1  It might be interesting to look at the stylus of that Grado with a microscope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hq1G4WID-U(PS AUDIO)

https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/phono-cartridge-loading-for-moving-magnet_topic992.html(Graham Slee)

https://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/load_the_magnets_e.html(TNT Audio)
http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html(Jim Hagerman)

And on and on. Clearly its not just me. FWIW my phono section is spec'ced to the RIAA curve all the way out to 100KHz, despite the RIAA not having a spec past 20KHz.

what do you mean by 'load' them? The link you gave me is way beyond what I can comprehend.

@terrible  "loading" of a cartridge is where a resistance is placed in parallel with the output of the cartridge; IOW from the signal to ground. Many phono preamps have provisions for this. Any high output cartridge will have a peak in its output at a particular frequency which will be at the upper end of the audio band or well past it. The link I provided has the technical explanations of why. Even if the peak is at 40KHz, there is a phenomena called 'phase shift'  which can introduce brightness artifacts in the audio band.


The resistor is inexpensive. The value is probably around 10K Ohms. This is assuming that your tonearm cable is actually meant for phonograph use (such cables are low capacitance to keep the peak as high as possible). If you are using a regular audio cable, you might consider finding one that is low capacitance instead (which is not expensive).

For the record, we use a Grado (wood body, low output) here at Atma-Sphere. I've run Grado cartridges many times off and on over the years. For test purposes when mastering LPs, I use a Grado Gold mounted to a Technics SL1200 to see if a regular common turntable can track the cut made.


The simple fact is Raul is clueless about my personal life and simply has no idea of what he was talking about. I've used more Grado cartridges than all the others I've used put together!


While it is true that the Grado site lists a rather low inductance (lower by an order of magnitude from what you would expect to see in a high output MM cartridge; I've not measured one of the high output units but I'd not be surprised if this is a typo), the simple fact is they respond quite nicely to loading. When a high output MM cartridge was all I used, I would load the Grados (as many of my friends did) at about 10KOhms with no capacitive loading at all. A few years ago I had a Transfiguration LOMC cartridge fail (one channel died) and sent if back for repairs. After a few days I was Jonesing for tunes and the only cartridge I had on hand was a Grado Green. Since the Triplanar is very adjustable and thus easy to set up, I installed the Green and took some care doing it. To my surprise it tracked beautifully. But it was a bit bright. So I loaded it at 10KOhms and the up front in your face brightness was gone- at that point its tonality was identical to the Transfiguration, which was at that time a $4500 cartridge.


IOW I speak from direct experience.

@terrible  I think something else might be afoot. Its well known that the cartridge will have an electrical resonance; if a MM high output cartridge the inductance of the cartridge will be high enough that the resonance may well be inside the audio band.

This depends heavily on the capacitance of the tonearm cable; for that reason tonearm cables are usually low capacitance. In addition, the cable is usually only about a meter because the longer the cable the more capacitance.


With MM cartridges (unlike LOMC cartridges, where the loading is affecting the preamp rather than the cartridge), loading is important, since loading will help deal with that resonance. You may well be hearing that resonance as brightness- when I've used similar Grados, I've always had to load them to get the brightness gone.

Before messing with all the tracking stuff I'd look into this. BTW if you want to know more about this see:
http://hagtech.com/loading