Expressimo RB 250 mistracking issue


I have a mistracking issue with my Expressimo RB250 / Shelter 501 MK II combo.

I was away for 6 months and wasn't listening to my vinyl rig, now when I got back I noticed that my cartridge started to mistrack a couple of LPs I own.

Those LPs are Direct to Disk editions that have a few very dynamic passages recorded but the cartridge was tracking them fine before. Now it mistracks them (you can clearly hear it on a drums solo when a drummer hits snare drum). Also on a Hi-Fi News Test LP I can only successfully track tracks 6 and 7, but not 8 although I was able to tack #8 before.

So what could've go wrong? I tied to adjust anti-skating, but I increased it all the way to the top limit and it still mistracks. I remember before I had anti-skating set at around 1.4 - 1.5 on the scale from 0 to 2, now even if I move it all the way to 2 it still mistracks.

I'd highly appreciate if anyone could help/recommend what can be done to fix this? Is it a tonearm settings or cartridge problem or something else?

Thank you in advance.
jimtyrro

Showing 8 responses by jimtyrro

Well, I tried that. I leveled and re-leveled it again. I played with tracking weight - didn't help.

Any other ideas/things I have to try?
I did check VTF and tried to play with it all the way from 1.6 g to 2.2g - still no luck.
Oh, I forgot about it, yes I use your 'Magic Eraser' - just forgot about it. It's in the same 'dry cleaning' group.
Well, my problem is not that it skips a lot of LPs. Just 2 particular ones that have very dynamic passages with drum solo. Every other one are just fine.
Thank you Doug for the clarification.

I guess what I meant to say is that my LP doesn't skip, it's just I hear some distortion in those challenging passages.

Anyway, as you said it doesn't hurt to check the wire. So, where exactly do I check this?

As for the cartridge I already remount it from scratch.
OK, I'll ask Maktheknife about wire.

Well, I've never used any liquid solution to clean it, just zerodust and a soft brush. What would you recommend?

As for the phono stage I didn't change a thing.