I have the KD-1500 turntable, which is fitted with an Audio-Technica Cartridge. I 'inherited' this unit from my wife. I do not use it often, but it seems to run well and sound good.
I was recently listening to a 1970's recording of the Julliard Quartet's Bartok First Quartet, and during the forth movement, when there is a big dynamic change there came some nasty distortion. I had not heard (or noticed, which would be embarrassing) this before on this LP.
At the advice of someone who grew up with this technology I placed a dime (2.5g?) of weight on the head of the arm, and this significantly reduced the distortion (by which I mean there was less ... squeal).
Obviously weighting the head would push the stylus into the groove, theoretically making harder contact with the vinyl, which might account for the reduction in distortion. But it is still present.
Now then The unit was, at the time on a metal wire rack which had some flex to it and was not a true flat surface, and is running through a Btec Pre-amp (nothing special but basically functional and will do what I need (hopefully) until I have the time and space to set up something more appropriate. And feeding into a NAD 320 with Wharfdale 9.2. The system does not give me problems elsewhere so I don't think anything past the phono pre-amp is at fault.
My questions are, would positioning the table cause distortion, or would other problems manifest themselves because of errors in placing the table? Might I be suffering from a worn stylus? or might the pre-amp not be able to cope with the dynamic range (maybe unnoticed in real terms as something else was adding to the issue). If weight improves the issue, this suggests something is set up wrong, and if so what would that be? Or maybe I am missing something stupid. Maybe the Cartridge should not be paired with the TT.
I am not overly familiar with turntables, so diagnosing problems is proving somewhat tricky (and at that I am good), and opinions of those experienced with such things would be helpful. I have been avoiding TT because I know it is something I will obsess about as there will be lots to do, and I am not currently in a position to do that.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.