Cartidge down! (wiring issue?)

Posted by analog guy (A) on January 29, 2021 at 15:29:29

Hello everyone!

I have the confluence of a few problems and was wondering if anyone had thoughts.

I'm lucky enough to have a turntable with 2 tonearms mounted. Ever since a move about 18 months ago, I've only listened to one of them.

The problems:
#1: I was using my "backup" tonearm/cartridge, and I only got sound from one channel - clear sound.

I switched the signal wires to the opposite channel but did NOT switch the ground. I got sound from BOTH channels... but accompanied with a low-level (60Hz?) hum.

With signal wires connected but grounds disconnected - no sound at all from either channel

With signal wires again connected to the matching channel's ground wire: clear sound in one channel only.

I was unable to get rid of the hum.

#2 The reason I'm using my backup arm/cartridge:
I noticed distortion on a recording the other day only in certain parts of a record (was actually both sides of a 2-record set; the first record was fine). I obtained another copy, and the distortion was there, but only on one of the 2 sides. Got a 3rd copy and... a similar thing. I thought it might be an issue with the entire run. It only happened with a particularly quiet/clear minimal recording of human voices.

Noticed the same distortion issue with another new-to-me record and it then made me test further.

Yep... seemed to be a problem with the cartridge (4yo Lyra). I think the suspension may have failed. The cantilever seems like it is tilted to one side in a way I don't recall it previously doing.

No accidents were had with it-at least that I'm aware of. Oh well... need to figure out whether or not to rebuild and how to go about it.

#3 Last thing..... I do sometimes stream music from my computer to my system. Seems like the backup to the backup. I got a new computer a month ago and....... nothing. For some reason my ADC (an old Apogee Duet) appears to be receiving a signal but nothing comes out when connected to my amp as I've always done before.

Oh well!

Rare that 3 failures would happen in short order, but there you go.

Anyone have any thoughts, esp on #1?

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Topic - Cartidge down! (wiring issue?) - analog guy 15:29:29 01/29/21 (2)

RE: Cartidge down! (wiring issue?) - analog guy 00:06:09 01/30/21 (0)

RE: Cartidge down! (wiring issue?) - analog guy 19:20:28 01/29/21 (0)

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