Distorted cymbals

I have yet another annoying vinyl problem. On nearly all my rock and metal records, loud cymbal crashes are distorted. It seems my system is unable to reproduce cymbals clearly and I can not figure out what part of the chain is to blame. Yes, my tracking force is already set to the highest recommended value, and my cartridge was installed and adjusted by a dealer with more than 20 years of experience.


Is it my cartridge that distorts and is unable to handle the loud peaks created by cymbal crashes?

Or is the vinyl format inherently unable to reproduce cymbals clearly, due to the RIAA encoding that boosts treble by 20 db during cutting? Imagine the beating the cutter head takes when cutting a record containing loud cymbals. In which case, it leads me to think that the distortion was cut into the groove.

A third possibility, since most of my records were purchased used and most of them are from the 1980s: since the high frequencies are the first thing that suffer and show signs of distortion when a record gets worn, the distorted cymbals I am hearing on my rock albums could simply be due to the fact that my records are getting worn out?

What TT and cartridge do you use? And which phonopreamp?

Edited by Cyreg - 05 Nov 2009 at 6:23pm

Analog Kid wrote: No, I have never tried experimenting with the Vertical Tracking Angle.

If I ask you kindly, will you?

Increasing tracking force (weight) pushes the stylus upwards thus making the VTA angle less.

Did that improve things?

If so, then you will need to adjust the VTA in the same direction.

One could conceivably increase the tracking force instead but eventually you would run out of suspension.

You may also like to read this article http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/vta_e.html

If the VTA is too high (the back end of the arm too high) contact is lost with the groove apart from the highs!

With my AT OC9 set to the correct VTA arm height wise, but set to a lower tracking force, I had fierce brightness. The same situation but in reverse.

After setting the tracking force as well, the fierce brightness was gone.

However, it may be worth noting, that in my opinion, Japanese hi-fi gear sounds bright...

It's all down to cultural differences. Without wanting to upset our valued Japanese customers, bass notes are hardly popular in traditional or classical Japanese music!

Therefore, the VTA may have to be set lower still!

EDIT: After reading the above TNT Audio article, I realised that the arm centre of gravity would also have a bearing on the sound, the Technics I use quite a lot having a high centre of gravity gleaned from that article. I set mine to perfectly level (the visible line on the cartridge), then reduced the tracking force to 1.3 grams (OC9), and the tonal balance was more acceptable - still a tad piercing at times, but as the rest of the range was louder, I could turn down the volume such that I wasn't overdriving my ears, and the piercing brightness usually attached to this cartridge was much reduced - and the bass deeper and more full too. I just set the Technics adjuster ring to 3.5 and had to turn the volume down again, but now it sounds more real. The test record? Mike Oldfield "Ommadawn" - Mike Oldfield - King of scream! You see, I test with real records and when anybody has a problem I always choose the real screamers.


Edited by Graham Slee - 08 Nov 2009 at 5:03am

Also see this...

There is another angle to all this which hit me as I was writing up the new Jazz Club phono preamp page soon to appear at the gspaudio website...

"Even some modern pressings can benefit by applying the 10kHz NAB cut (-16dB) instead of RIAA (-13.7dB) - notably some toppy sounding Tamla Motown and other recordings that are unusually bright. It may not be due to record labels clinging to the older NAB EQ - it's more likely to be the generous 2dB tolerance allowed by the RIAA standard."