If the alignment was set upon purchase don’t mess with it until you get the VTF accurized as this can be thrown off during shipping. In fact, no turntable should be shipped without removing the counterweight since unless the arm is tightly braced the weight can torque the bearings and arm tube. If the VTF is correct then start looking at other setup parameters after you have confirmed the table is isolated from the room.
New to vinyl question
I recently added a turntable to my system, mostly so I could play old records of my father's that formed my early introduction to music. I got what I think is a pretty good turntable, a Music Hall Stealth with an Ortofun Blue cartridge. I'm playing it through my Rogue Sphinx 2, hooked up to a Mytek Brooklyn Amp through Focal Aria 926 speakers. None of this equipment is the highest end available, but it's always sounded great when streaming from my BlueSound Node 2. When i first played some records, particularly jazz and classical, I really enjoyed the sound, though in not sure I prefer it to streaming digital in all contexts. I definitely think the vinyl sounds great for acoustic instruments and vocals, particularly female vocals. But after a little time playing some old Cream and Hendrix records (in new or like-new condition), I noticed pretty significant distortion particularly in the bass. I'm wondering if this is some issue of improper setup or just an artifact of analog reproduction. The sound I'm hearing on the bass lines in particular sounds like clipping i think. But I'm not playing at high volume and it doesn’t happen when I play the same track from a streamed source at the same volume. Any ideas for what I'm heading? I'm hesitant to expand my record collection until I get the issue figured out. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.