Evidence of groove damage of TT setup?

Play a few records with dynamic passages you know to be undamaged. If you hear distortion, it's probably an alignment (including VTF) issue. If not, welcome to the world of junk vinyl.

>>Fatparrot is entirely correct about much older vinyl, especially rock albums<<

That might be a generalization but many of us were very careful back in the old days. For that reason those same records sound even better today due to the extremely high level of contemporary vinyl playback equipment.

David says:
>>I'm guessing I haven't run across too many of YOUR old LPs in the thrift stores... :-)<<

You have a better chance of winning the lottery.
:-))))))))))))

Have fun!!

>>shape of the grunge?<<

Nice going Doug. Now you've given every vinylphile one more thing to obsess over.

:-)