Well, I've come a long way on my vinyl playback setup. I built a Ladegaard air bearing tonearm and have it successfully working. I upgraded to a Denon DL-103 cartridge with Lundahl MC step up transformers. I feel I have everything set up properly, VTA, VTF, azimuth, the whole bit, but certain discs have "smearing" type distortion on the s's and other sibilance. It seems to get worse the farther into the record that it plays. It also seems that the high frequency extension isn't quite there either.
I have a couple of vinyl's that have some MAJOR distortion upon playback that weren't there with my previous cartridge (a cheap Shure MM) and is really bothering me. I have included a clip of what i'm talking about.
There's a .wav file for people who have high bandwidth downloads and a high bit rate .mp3 for all others.
I cannot tell as to where this distortion is originating. What is weird is for most of the album (i have included a track where it is most pronounced) I can convert the playback to M/S and bring down the sides, this removes 90% of the distortion most of the time. I don't know what this means but it obviously only works on mono records.
I'm curious as to what anyone thinks about this. The links are posted below. Thanks in advance for taking the time to help me with this.
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/whatdistortion.mp3 <-mp3 version
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/whatdistortion.wav <-wav version
I have a couple of vinyl's that have some MAJOR distortion upon playback that weren't there with my previous cartridge (a cheap Shure MM) and is really bothering me. I have included a clip of what i'm talking about.
There's a .wav file for people who have high bandwidth downloads and a high bit rate .mp3 for all others.
I cannot tell as to where this distortion is originating. What is weird is for most of the album (i have included a track where it is most pronounced) I can convert the playback to M/S and bring down the sides, this removes 90% of the distortion most of the time. I don't know what this means but it obviously only works on mono records.
I'm curious as to what anyone thinks about this. The links are posted below. Thanks in advance for taking the time to help me with this.
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/whatdistortion.mp3 <-mp3 version
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/whatdistortion.wav <-wav version
Maybe the discs that have bad distortion have got groove damage that the cheap cart was somehow not resolving? Do those discs sound OK on a different system with a good cartridge, I wonder?
Or maybe your DL-103 is actually faulty? Can you try it on a different arm/TT, or alternatively can you try another DL-103 on your arm?
Or maybe your DL-103 is actually faulty? Can you try it on a different arm/TT, or alternatively can you try another DL-103 on your arm?
Seems the consensus is that the tonearm doesn't have enough effective mass for this cartridge. Since it's a diy job, hopefully this shoudn't be hard to fix. Are there easy ways for increasing the effective mass? Also if I was to make another tonearm, would using denser woods increase this mass?
Frank, when you say the tonearm's position isn't correct, what do you mean? How would I adjust this?
Thanks for everyones help so far. I'm going to try some things today and report back.
Frank, when you say the tonearm's position isn't correct, what do you mean? How would I adjust this?
Thanks for everyones help so far. I'm going to try some things today and report back.
VE=Vinyl Engine forum. 
I don't know if it's any help, but some people appear to be using the 103 with this arm: http://www.trans-fi.com/terminatortonearm.htm
I don't know if it's any help, but some people appear to be using the 103 with this arm: http://www.trans-fi.com/terminatortonearm.htm
Hmm, that almost seems counterintuitive. The actual tonearm is so short on this particular setup.
Anyways i'm in the process of switching the tonearm to an all copper arm. It's weight is much more than the wood one i'm currently using. Hopefully this should bring some improvement.
As always I appreciate the help thus far.
Anyways i'm in the process of switching the tonearm to an all copper arm. It's weight is much more than the wood one i'm currently using. Hopefully this should bring some improvement.
As always I appreciate the help thus far.
The metal arm should be a much better match I would think. When your 103 is working happily I recommend removing its plastic body as described in this thread: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=117395
You'll be happy too!
You'll be happy too!
what distortion
WOW! What distortion!
The last time I heard distortion like that was signal breaking up in a vacuum tube amplifier with a leaking interstage coupling capacitor which placed DC on the grid of the next tube. That was a long time ago.
I suggest looking for problems in the amp or preamp. I listened to both the .wav and the .mp3 files just to make sure of what I was hearing.
Another possibility could be a damaged stylus or a gross accumulation of crud on the stylus or cantilever.
That is all I can think of for now. I do favor the electronics problem.
Bill
WOW! What distortion!
The last time I heard distortion like that was signal breaking up in a vacuum tube amplifier with a leaking interstage coupling capacitor which placed DC on the grid of the next tube. That was a long time ago.
I suggest looking for problems in the amp or preamp. I listened to both the .wav and the .mp3 files just to make sure of what I was hearing.
Another possibility could be a damaged stylus or a gross accumulation of crud on the stylus or cantilever.
That is all I can think of for now. I do favor the electronics problem.
Bill
Well, I have changed the tonearm to a pretty heavy copper tube and with this I've had to increase the couterweight to suit, so this should help also. It's amazing that 1 fish tank pump will float all this weight without breaking a sweat!
I have played back the record in question and a lot of the distortion out toward the sides has diminished greatly. I really think it's a damaged record at this point, as it is the worst track on the whole record. I also purchased some new records with some very difficult recordings for a cartridge to playback and i feel it did a great job. It's a vintage recording of some JS Bach concertos for harpsichord and orchestra. I'll post some samples of this after I give the records a good cleaning (goodwill specials $.49 each!!) and if you could give me some feedback on these i'd be really appreciative. I'll also post another track from that same Beatles album along with the track in question with the new arm for comparison. Thanks again for all the help!
I have played back the record in question and a lot of the distortion out toward the sides has diminished greatly. I really think it's a damaged record at this point, as it is the worst track on the whole record. I also purchased some new records with some very difficult recordings for a cartridge to playback and i feel it did a great job. It's a vintage recording of some JS Bach concertos for harpsichord and orchestra. I'll post some samples of this after I give the records a good cleaning (goodwill specials $.49 each!!) and if you could give me some feedback on these i'd be really appreciative. I'll also post another track from that same Beatles album along with the track in question with the new arm for comparison. Thanks again for all the help!
Well, just to humor myself, I changed the ratio of the step up transformers from 20:1 to 10:1 and increased the loading on the cartridge. This seemed to help a lot, although i got a hold of a dissecting microscope and had a look at the grooves of the particular tracks in question.
I guess I needed to keep in mind that these discs are over 40 years old. Compared to a relatively new record (yes i know the grooves can't be tit for tat, but I needed a control) and the grooves looked worn and distorted (hey, distorted grooves, distorted sound???) so I might have found the culprit.
I had no idea how much of a difference in the sound changing the loading resistors could make. As promised I'll post the song as it sounds now, just to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
I guess I needed to keep in mind that these discs are over 40 years old. Compared to a relatively new record (yes i know the grooves can't be tit for tat, but I needed a control) and the grooves looked worn and distorted (hey, distorted grooves, distorted sound???) so I might have found the culprit.
I had no idea how much of a difference in the sound changing the loading resistors could make. As promised I'll post the song as it sounds now, just to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
Ok, here's the samples as promised.
Any feedback on the jazz track would be appreciated. I can't detect anything wrong, but I'm sure there are some keener/more experienced ears on here than mine.
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/newsettings.wav
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/newsettings.mp3
The above 2 links are for the original track with the new setup.
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/yayjazz.wav
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/yayjazz.mp3
The above 2 are the jazz song.
Thanks to everyone for their help. I really appreciate it.
Any feedback on the jazz track would be appreciated. I can't detect anything wrong, but I'm sure there are some keener/more experienced ears on here than mine.
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/newsettings.wav
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/newsettings.mp3
The above 2 links are for the original track with the new setup.
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/yayjazz.wav
http://www.abdclub.com/Audio/yayjazz.mp3
The above 2 are the jazz song.
Thanks to everyone for their help. I really appreciate it.
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