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Stylus not tracking and sounds terrible

I haven't used my TT in about 6 months due to a remodeling project. The TT was not moved, just not used. Yesterday I fired it up, tried to play some new vinyl, and ran into a problem.

The sound is terrible, shrill and scratchy sounding with no bass. The stylus randomly skates and hops. I tried playing a couple of records I know sound great but the problem remained.

The VTF, VTA, and azimuth are set correctly. I swapped out cables to and from the TT to the phono amp but still have the problem. I tried balanced and single ended cables to my pre from the phono pre.

I tried increasing VTF, playing with the VTA, disconnecting my subs, nothing changed.

The TT is a VPI Aries 1, Benz-Micro LO cartridge, Pass Aleph Ono pre. I've owned all of them since new or almost new so it all has some years on it but it sounded great before. Could the cartridge go bad in 6 months by just sitting there unused?

I had a similar problem a while ago and determined it was vibration/resonance from my room. I have the Aries sitting on a Ginko cloud platform now and it is pretty well isolated.

Everything sounded great the last time I played music on it. The only thing that changed was the location of the phono pre. It used to sit next to the TT but now my ARC amp is in that place. Could the tube amp be doing something here? The TT is right next to it on the same shelf.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
nolacap
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
After 20 years nolacap you can treat yourself to a new cartridge. If you liked what you had then the safe bet is to stick with Benz. Stick with the same or greater output, get the most you can afford, it will be like what you had but completely across the board better in every way. That's what I found going from a Micro-Glider to Benz Ruby H. The same, only a whole lot better in every way.

Or if you can swing it, Koetsu Black Goldline is another one very similar so the only surprise will be how much better things can keep getting and still be supremely balanced with nothing hyped or exaggerated in any way. Just more and more refined.


nolacap OP
84 posts
 
This whole thing is a silver lining. One result of the renovations is that my lps now reside close to my system. For the past several years my records were located in the next room. The result was that I didn’t play them as often as I would like.
cliffaudio
5 posts
 
I started with a Denon DL103 cartridge way back with a Well Tempered Record Player and the sound was so much more musical than my Sony cd player at that time.  I went to a Benz MC3.  Huge improvement.  Upgraded turntable to Well Tempered Classic. Small improvement.  Next was the Benz Ruby II.  Another small improvement.  Then Benz LP, and finally Benz LPS MR.  Huge improvement. Upgraded to the Well Tempered Reference Turntable.  Another small improvement.  Went from Audio Research SP9 II to Mare Connoisseur to Esoteric E-02 Phono preamp.  Incredible sound, beats my PS Audio Direct Stream Dac and Direct Stream Player.  Not even close.  Analog has that organic sound that digital cannot match.
grgaudio's avatar
grgaudio
38 posts
 

Definition of motor: Device that converts electrical or other energy into mechanical energy or imparts motion.

The advisers that talk about motor inside a cartridge have no idea what is it all about.

 

The cartridge (in your case MC type) is very simple devise (by design) and very complex (by execution).

 

First- the moving part has only one joint (human hand with fingers has 27 joints). The rigidity of a cartridge joint supported by tension cable. The softness of a cartridge joint supported by 1 or 2 dampers. The dampers deterioration causes ALL sonic and physical properties of a cartridge become progressively worse. Different manufacturers using different damper material. They last for 1 to 10 years.

Stylus life is 500-2000 hours. If you play 2 LPs a day average life span of your cartridge  is 3/4 - 3 years. There is no magic of having the correct, good sound at all.

You have no doubt that you need to change oil in your car every 3,000 miles and tires every 50,000 miles. Cartridge need to be change every 3 years. If you invest into analog- this should be planned expenses.
lewm
13,038 posts
 
 Most modern automobiles can go at least 10,000 miles between oil changes. Just so, it is no stretch of the imagination to think of a phonograph cartridge as a motor. It converts mechanical energy of the cantilever into an electrical signal. As in many motors, coils of wire around an iron core or other and permanent magnets are involved.In a way, it’s a reverse motor. It is no problem, when everyone knows what you’re actually talking about. No need to get hung up on semantics.
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