turntable quirks

1) check weight, balance and antiskating settings.
2) treble and dust cover is a new one on me... but, leave the dust cover down.

Question:
New or used turntable/cartridge?
How old?
What make/model cartridge is currently in use?

New or second-hand records?

I am experiencing a similar problem, which I think is grime building up on the stylus as it makes its way across the record.

Yes. And also check cartridge alignment.

Since the arm swings in an arc, it is only perfectly parallel to the grove at two places on the LP with a correctly aligned cartridge. But if it parallel at the beginning of the LP, it will be far from parallel at the end. This might be the cause of the distortion.

Google for an alignment protractor. I know that vinylengine.com has them for download. At least then you can check the alignment.

Inner Groove Distortion. Pretty much unavoidable. It's just geometry. Basically, in (roughly) 2 seconds, the outermost groove travels about 3 feet, while the innermost groove travels maybe 15 inches. (I haven't done the precise math.) Any given note just has a lot less vinyl real estate devoted to it in the inner groove. Hence the distortion. It's the same thing with analog tape. The faster the tape travels, the lower the distortion.


Welcome to the world of analog. This is just physics. The needle's vibrating in the groove, and things that vibrate make sounds. The solution to this problem is simple: Don't turn the AVR off! You won't hear the turntable from your listening position.

+1

hearing the sounds at the needle is unavoidable, just keep the dust cover down.

Distortion on the inner tracks is a problem that is usually caused by bad anti-skate (does not properly compensate for the centripetal force) and/or cartridge misalignment.
I also had a very bad case of inner groove distortion with the cheap turntables I used in the past. I thought it was an unfortunate fact of life. That changed dramatically when I upgraded to a better turntable which had anti-skating compensation mechanism and where I actually put some effort to properly align the cartridge. All that distortion is as good as gone now.

In that case, the only real solution is to move the turntable further away from you. Sorry.


Check the cartridge alignment before you touch it. I presume you bought a turntable with the cart pre-installed. It's probably just fine, but you never know. And even if you have to realign the cart, it won't completely solve the inner groove distortion problem. Geometry, remember.

Buy a new cartridge and make sure it is aligned properly with a protractor. Assuming all the records you've played aren't damaged, the distortion should be greatly minimized.

B.

Yeah, you might want to look into putting something like a Shure M97xE cartridge on it. You can probably find it for around $55 if you shop around and watch for internet deals. It's a very decent and good bang-for-your-buck cart for an entry-level TT and it tracks well. It also comes with its own very nice cardboard protractor and instructions on how to align it at the two points on the platter when you are setting it within the TT's arm's headshell. It sounds harder than it is. It takes maybe 10-15 minutes after you figure out what you're doing. Put an old record you don't mind scratching and a paper sleeve over it on the TT platter when you are twisting the cartridge in the headshell and matching it to the points on the protractor (during cartridge alignment).

For more detailed instructions, go yourself over to vinylengine and look there. There are loads of enthusiasts and some very good experience and advice. Look especially for posts made by a guy named Alex. He's always cheerful and helpful, and knows his stuff.

If you can "hear" the stylus (friction on the record), above the music (at 85dB), that's nasty.

Are you sure that the tonearm is balanced properly? Sounds like you have too much weight.