Strangest Phono Sound I Ever Heard


First of all, Happy TG.  Yesterday, the strangest thing happened with my TT.  I have a Basis 2001 with a Transfiguration Orpheus, running to a Linn Linto.  I've had this setup for well over 7 years without any problems, although I did change the cart once.  So the other day I put on a record and I get this strange sound in the right speaker, almost like mistracking and it started happening consistently.  I checked all the connections and they were noiseless.  I even changed the input on my integrated amp, which works perfectly with my digital.  So I figure maybe the cartridge is messed up so I change the cartridge and when I am doing the alignment, I notice an excessive amount of anti-skate, even though I have it set to minimum.  So I take the counterweight off the anti-skate and it seems better.  I install the new cart and It is making the same mistracking sound in the right channel. Plus, I am getting a sound that sounds like a motorcycle speeding up and slowing down in the right speaker.  It is definitely not a 60-cycle hum.  It sounds like a recording of a motorcycle varying in speed.  I shook all the connections and nothing was loose.  The weirdest thing I've ever heard out of an audio system.  Any ideas?  Again, have a good holiday.  

chayro

You might try this. BASIS is a top tier company founded and run but one of the best engineers in the business. Why don't you try contacting them and lay your issue out to them in full. 

If nothing else, they may have a suggestion that will help set you in the right direction to discover and cure the problem, or they may possibly know the source of the ailment.

I think I'd start there rather talking to a bunch of totally disassociated people.

As you have eliminated the Turntable, it might be prudent to swap over the interconnects between the Linto & Integrated, just to eliminate those, also repeat the excercise into another input, if the results stay the same, then it’s almost definitely the Linto that’s at fault.

 

regards

Barry

 

So I got the $129 Pro-ject phono stage from Amazon and everything works perfect.  I'm sure I'm the only one in the world using a $5k cartridge with a $129 phono stage.  I'm a little embarrassed to say it doesn't sound horrible at all. You should get one to keep as a spare when your 10k unit craps out and you send it out for repairs. Thank you for your sound suggestions. And @axpert - you're absolutely correct.  Basis is a top-notch company, but before I send the arm into them for a checkup I figured I'd ask if anyone here had the same problem. BTW - AJ had a very different approach to setting anti-skate if you watch his DVD.  He made some great products. 

Why worry about the tonearm? If I am following correctly, you’ve proven the problem resides with your preamp.