RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used...

Posted by Lew (A) on May 29, 2012 at 08:17:26

In Reply to: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... posted by carvinman on May 28, 2012 at 13:26:36:

..."one thing I did notice is that I lost most of this distrortion when I skewed the VTA (or is it azimuth?) of the arm to the point where the needle was visually angled in toward the center of the turntable"...

It sounds to me like this was azimuth you were fiddling with, not VTA. Azimuth is the term used to describe the angle of the cantilever/stylus with respect to the LP surface, when the cartridge is viewed "on end", or from the front looking back down the length of the tonearm. It would be good for you to learn the meaning of these different terms. Azimuth affects mainly crosstalk, the amount of the R channel signal that appears in the L channel and vice-versa. So I strongly doubt that your extreme adjustment of azimuth was a good way to cure your problem, and you did the right thing when you abandoned that approach.

I disagree that the distortion you describe should be common to such a large fraction of your jazz LPs. I think, as someone else remarked, you are merely experiencing the wider dynamics of the better jazz LPs vs rock LPs, which is eliciting the distortion. So there should be a way to improve your results dramatically without discarding any LPs (this is assuming that your LPs have not been trashed already by previous owners, if you bought a lot of used ones). You don't specify, but I gather that your tonearm came with your turntable. Perhaps you should first find out whether it is considered to be a good match for your cartridge, in terms of its effective mass in relation to the compliance of the Ortofon. If so, then I would advise you to use the following start points: (1) set azimuth to 90 degrees; (2) set the VTA (height of the arm pillar in relation to the LP surface) such that the headshell is parallel to the LP surface. These are reasonable starting points. Then set VTF in accordance with the recommendations of Ortofon. If you still have distortion then raise VTF toward the upper limit specified by Ortofon. Sometimes even a tiny fraction of a gram difference can eliminate the kind of distortion you describe, which I suspect is due to mistracking. If adjusting VTF upwards a tad does not help at all, then try adjusting VTA. Raising the arm pillar will tend to increase high frequencies at the expense of lows, and vice-versa.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - carvinman 13:26:36 05/28/12 (23)

tonearm and cartridge XXXXX - cpielock@eaglebrook.org 20:20:22 05/29/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - jazzthusiast 16:28:59 05/29/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - Lew 08:17:26 05/29/12 (0)

Playing rock albums doesn't stress much with TT playback, - Dan_ed 04:03:17 05/29/12 (0)

70 records is not that many - jbcortes 23:01:25 05/28/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - learsfool 21:32:36 05/28/12 (12)

However, there are also alot of really crappy jazz records out there. - richardl 11:24:56 06/01/12 (0)

RE: Or, dare I write it, the OPs ears.... - amioutaline? 07:15:36 05/29/12 (0)

Blue Note - elix 03:15:22 05/29/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - WOStantonCS100 22:17:21 05/28/12 (8)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - learsfool 19:13:17 05/29/12 (0)

I didn't detect any passive-aggression in his post. - soundnut 06:18:56 05/29/12 (4)

RE: I didn't detect any passive-aggression in his post. - WOStantonCS100 11:30:07 05/29/12 (0)

RE: I didn't detect any passive-aggression in his post. - WOStantonCS100 11:22:22 05/29/12 (2)

RE: I didn't detect any passive-aggression in his post. - soundnut 17:15:02 05/29/12 (1)

RE: I didn't detect any passive-aggression in his post. - WOStantonCS100 21:41:31 05/29/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - jbcortes 23:53:45 05/28/12 (1)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - WOStantonCS100 00:51:05 05/29/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - WOStantonCS100 18:39:32 05/28/12 (0)

most jazz I have plays better than rock or classical... - gkargreen 18:03:22 05/28/12 (0)

You turntable/cartridge is not up to the job.... - vinyl1 15:27:02 05/28/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - Biff 14:49:16 05/28/12 (0)

First thing I would do is have a fellow vinyl freak.. - nocoastjazz@gmail.com 13:37:04 05/28/12 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used... - Lew 08:17:26 05/29/12 (0)

RE: Problems with jazz vinyl, new and used...

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