Somehow I've got myself a "WTF" dilema with my newly setup Turntable. HELP!

Great call, Rhljazz!

FWIW, in most situations in which an LOMC gain setting is inadvertently used with a high output cartridge, I would expect the symptom to be severe distortion on musical peaks, caused by clipping in either the phono stage or the input stage of the preamp or integrated amp. And I would expect it to occur on musical peaks regardless of whether one or both output channels of the phono stage are connected.

In this case, though, perhaps what was happening is that when both channels were connected to the amp the resulting overload was triggering one of its self-protection mechanisms. And perhaps the symptom followed the interchange of channel connections because the signal happened to be a bit louder at the particular time in one channel than in the other. Or perhaps a minor gain difference between the two channels was the reason.

For the benefit of others who may read this thread, one thing it makes clear is how important it can be, when seeking help on a problem, to state exactly what equipment is being used.

Enjoy! Regards,
-- Al

Although some of the reported observations seem inconsistent with the possibility of a polarity reversal in one channel (which could conceivably result from a miswire in the new turntable, or even a miswire within the cartridge itself), to be certain that isn’t causing the problem I would suggest that you try reversing the + and - connections to one (and only one) speaker, at either the speaker end or the amp end of the cable (but not both).

As you may be aware, a polarity reversal on one channel can have strange effects on image position and focus when both channels are playing, but would not affect sonics significantly when only one channel is playing.

Regards,
-- Al

Strange problem indeed.

Is the phono stage new (to you), as well as the turntable? In other words, has this problem always been present since you started using the phono stage?

If so, although I can’t formulate a complete explanation at this point, my hunch is that something is miswired in the output circuit of one channel of the phono stage. Almost (but not exactly) as if a ground wire and a signal wire are interchanged, resulting in the signal on that output of the phono stage being shorted to the phono stage’s ground when a path between that signal and that ground is created by connection of the ground of the good channel of the phono stage to the amp’s ground. Or something like that :-)

Also, am I correct in assuming that these connections are via RCA cables, rather than XLRs?

Finally, can you indicate the make and model numbers of the phono stage and the integrated amp?

Regards,
-- Al