Stating the obvious - cart alignment

[quadzilla]

I know most people into vinyl know this, but cart alignment is critical. I didn't realize how critical until I picked up a new phono stage. I was getting what I thought was distortion during some passages, but it turned out that my cart was just very slightly misaligned. I had never noticed the issue with my old phono stage, so it had me rather puzzled until I finally figured it out after about a week or so (with the help of Tom over at Aural Thrills). After correcting the misalignment, the system really smoothed out and I never hear my cart breaking up, not to mention overall response, imaging, etc. are all improved.

[hearingimpared]

. . . just to go a little further, it is extremely important for best SQ to have as perfectly setup a cartridge as possible but a cartridge that is isn't WILL CAUSE RECORD WEAR and depending on how off the setup is can cause major record damage.

Good post quad!

[quadzilla]

Indeed. An even more important reason to make sure your cart is correctly aligned.

[hearingimpared]

Indeed. An even more important reason to make sure your cart is correctly aligned.

You said it! I can't tell you how many people I've come across with their cartridge out of alignment and they can't figure why their vinyl from end sounds like ass and their records are so noisy.