Well, my replacement stylus showed up (at least a day ago, in fact - it was in front of our neighbors' door) and that was definitely it. Very tiny hint of unobjectionable grittyness on challenging vocals at the very end of the side, but basically fine, and all the fiddling I did in the meantime definitely paid off in terms of the turntable now sounding better than ever (as best I can judge, which is really not at all since last time I ehard it with a fresh stylus I was using a vastly inferior amp to my current one). I can't wait to hear it in a few days when it's broken in!
Anyway, thanks for the advice, all of it was educational even if it turned out to be unnecessary in this situation.
I can't believe I'm looking at replacing my stylus roughly every 4 months now! Maybe I damaged it somehow and couldn't see the damage without a stronger microscope. At any rate, it's a relief that so far there's no audible damage to anything that I played recently with the old stylus.
Anyway, thanks for the advice, all of it was educational even if it turned out to be unnecessary in this situation.
I can't believe I'm looking at replacing my stylus roughly every 4 months now! Maybe I damaged it somehow and couldn't see the damage without a stronger microscope. At any rate, it's a relief that so far there's no audible damage to anything that I played recently with the old stylus.
Yep, it's set up as well as I've ever had it, after the last couple of days, although I never did get it to follow the arc on the protractor quite right. I have a feeling that the distance between the stylus tip and the mounting holes on this model cartridge is a little too long for perfect alignment on this arm, because I DEFINITELY need to move it back a couple more millimeters than is possible. Still sounds good with the fresh stylus, though, and that alignment trouble has been true as long as I've had the thing, regardless of what method I was using.
EPILOGUE:
Even though things sounded better after I installed the new stylus, there was still something very wrong. Eventually I noticed that the left and right ground wires had been swapped on the arm itself, and I'd never noticed before. I corrected that and everything sounds right finally. No more boxiness in the midrange, female vocals have presence again, and what inner groove distortion is still present is acceptable - before it was harsh and up front, now it's jsut an occasional graniness in the last two minutes or so of some sides.
The weird thing is that the miswiring had no audible effect on my old solid state system, but with the current one the effect was very pronounced.
Even though things sounded better after I installed the new stylus, there was still something very wrong. Eventually I noticed that the left and right ground wires had been swapped on the arm itself, and I'd never noticed before. I corrected that and everything sounds right finally. No more boxiness in the midrange, female vocals have presence again, and what inner groove distortion is still present is acceptable - before it was harsh and up front, now it's jsut an occasional graniness in the last two minutes or so of some sides.
The weird thing is that the miswiring had no audible effect on my old solid state system, but with the current one the effect was very pronounced.
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