Distorted vocals problem

dbarila

dbarila

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Joined
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Re-hashing an old problem here. I installed a Grado Blue3 a couple of months ago and was having a problem with distortion on the vocals. It's seemed pretty mild and sporatic. However today I got a record where it's extremely noticeable. It's always on the vocals and in the right channel.



Alignment and tracking force are good. Don't know what else to check. It's a U-Turn so no anti skate adjustment.
 
dbarila said:
Re-hashing an old problem here. I installed a Grado Blue3 a couple of months ago and was having a problem with distortion on the vocals. It's seemed pretty mild and sporatic. However today I got a record where it's extremely noticeable. It's always on the vocals and in the right channel.



Alignment and tracking force are good. Don't know what else to check. It's a U-Turn so no anti skate adjustment.
Click to expand...


One channel is most often anti skate. What did you use for alignment?
 
HiFi Guy said:
And is the issue across the whole album or better at the outside or inside- towards the label?
Click to expand...
First Gen U-Turn. It's about the same throughout. Mainly when the dynamics increase. Just for grins I put my Black1 stylus in and it seemed to go away. Upon examining my Blue...is might just be me but the diamond tip just seems not centered on the cantilever.

20200514_212851.jpg
 
dbarila said:
First Gen U-Turn. It's about the same throughout. Mainly when the dynamics increase. Just for grins I put my Black1 stylus in and it seemed to go away. Upon examining my Blue...is might just be me but the diamond tip just seems not centered on the cantilever.

View attachment 46952
Click to expand...

I see a bent cantilever. And I remember you stating you had this issue from day 1. Paging @RichGrado
 
I already requested an Amazon replacement before I saw this :(. I'll see if it's too late to cancel and wait for Rich to reply.

Could a bent cantilever have contributed to tracking issues like Texas Sun and Demon Days skipping when I first installed?
 
dbarila said:
I already requested an Amazon replacement before I saw this :(. I'll see if it's too late to cancel and wait for Rich to reply.

Could a bent cantilever have contributed to tracking issues like Texas Sun and Demon Days skipping when I first installed?
Click to expand...

Absolutely.
 
Hey everyone, i will start with the off center cantilever, doesn't matter, the diamond tracks the groove, if its off center a little doesn't make a difference, please do not try to move it, you'll end up breaking it. The channel having some static could be an issue with the chassis, I would suggest you send it back and we'll check it out, you have a one year warranty on the operation of the piece, not on the cantilever though, so please leave that alone. If its a few months old you need to work it through the sales team, email them at inquiries.gl@gradolabs.com
 
Got my replacement Blue from Amazon today. The problem seems fixed for the most part. I still hear slight distortion on the vocals on that particular album but not nearly as bad and it was on par with when I installed my Black cartridge on the old Blue body. So I'm thinking it's a bad pressing that was exacerbated by a bad stylus.
 
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