newbie to vinyl needs help

Hello.
First: Clean the cartridge pins and the pins on your cartridge.
2. Remove the stylus and clean the metal part that goes into the cartridge body, then treat it with pro-gold, etc.
3. You must use a protractor to align your cartridge in the the headshell properly. Your arm may lack VTA or height adjustment which is somewhat critical.

If all this is done it should improve the sound. I would also lubricate all moving parts with a lightweight oil with only a drop or two in critical areas. Inspect the cable on the tonearm to make sure it is clean as well as the RCA jacks and pins too.
Make sure the cartridge weight is set properly.

Or take it to your local Hi Fi store and ask them to check it out. If they are a Rega dealer they may take it in on trade and sell you a Rega P1.

If after you have done all of this and no improvement I would purchase a Shure M97 cartridge which mates well with this arm. The Grados may work well too but I think the M97 is better suited. The problem is that the Shure will run you around $100. That's almost 3 times the cost of the table.
I once replaced the entire tonearm wire with a quality interconnect once and it was a huge improvement. By the time you do that you could almost pick up a Rega P1 for a righteous price and be very very happy.
Good Luck and Happy Listening

As Timeltel says, this turntable has a P-mount cartridge, so all the advice about VTF, overhang, alignment, adjusting anti-skate, and swapping to a standard 1/2" mount cartridge (e.g., Shure M97xE) does not apply. P-mount cartridges are plug'n'play. To be a P-mount cartridge it must conform in overall weight, geometry, compliance and therefore tracking force and anti-skate settings. Cleaning the contacts at the plug-in still applies however.

There are still some higher quality P-mount cartridges available. LPGear.com offers a wide variety of P-mount cartridges here. For $100 I think I'd go with the Ortofon 320, though several of the other offerings are good as well.

As others said, the distorted sound you're getting is probably from a dirty or damaged stylus or damaged records. Could also possibly be from a bad connection, which is why cleaning the contacts is a good idea.

Also, you said "you've been told they (cartridges) either work or they don't..." but you don't say who told you that. You can't believe everything you've been told, even by us. What is the make and model of the cartridge? You may need to clean the contacts where the cartridge plugs into the arm.

Do you have any new records to try out on this turntable?

Thanks for all the response...and sorry for the delay in responding.

Ive tried everything that applies (new record and cleaning contacts..even returned the stylus for a new one) and still have the problem... so here is what ive decided to do...in order to give vinyl a fair shake ive ordered a new pro-ject 1.3 table. Now i have another question....

Im thinking that the phono stage in my onkyo pre/pro probably isnt the best...so im considering buying the Bellari vp 130 tube phono preamp...for the reason just mentioned and the fact that to get any volume out of the old table im usnig i have to turnup the volume MUCH higher than any other source...also with the maggies i think the tube preamp will sound nice.....so what do you think...is the bellari a better way to go or should i stick with the onkyo's phono imput?

Snookfisher: Glad to see you back, good analog requires determination. Your comment about diminished volume indicates something isn't right, volume should be comparable with other sources. The pro-ject TT and Belario pre is a sensible entry and should tell you if vinyl is, for you, worth pursuing. What cartridge will you be using?

Ir comes with the pearl