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Tracking error distortion audibility

I recently unpacked my turntable from a couple of years of storage. It still sounds very good. Several times during playback of the first few albums I literally jumped from my chair to see which track was playing as it sounded so great. After a while I realized the "great" sound was always at one of the "null" points. They seem to occur at the approximately the proper place (about 125mm from spindle) and near the lead out groove. Questions:
Is this common? I have improved the resolution of my system since the table's been in storage but I don't remember hearing this before.
All others geometric sources of alignment error not defined by the null points (VTA, azimuth etc.) are essentially constant through out the arc correct? If so they should cancel out. I assume the remedy is a linear tracking arm but I am surprised at how obviously better the sound is at these two points.
Table - AR ES-1, Arm - Sumiko MMT, Cart. - Benz Glider, Pre - Audible Illusions, Speakers - Innersound electrostatic hybrid
Do linear arms really sound as good across the whole record as I hear at only the nulls with my set-up?
feathed
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Check your alignment; very small changes in alignment can have very large effects where sound quality is concerned. I assume that you are using Baerwald alignment by the null point that you reference. Why not try Stevenson? At any rate, I feel that you are hearing what you think that you should be hearing, as the inner grooves should also diminish the sound quality, due to the worse tracing of the increased radius of curvature and the lower amount of information passing the stylus for a given unit of time and you do not reference this.
jwglista
205 posts
 
I think inner groove distortion is very common. I recently went nuts trying to align my cart perfectly (Clearaudio Virtuoso). I confirmed using Baerwald and "Lofgren B" that my alignment was spot on. Some say that increasing tracking force can help eliminate the inner groove distortion, but until I receive my new digital stylus force gauge, I have no idea what I'm actually tracking at.

A lot of albums I have appear to have inner groove *damage*. It must have been caused by a setup that was incorrect by the previous owner of the album. Obviously there's nothing you can do in that case except buy a new copy. But even on my new albums, in grooves that are very close to the center of the record, I often hear a diminished quality of sound, and sometimes I notice sibilance which is very loud. All I can hope for is that this is not damaging my albums because my setup is practically perfect; one person even suggested that I try another cart (even though the Virtuoso is already a $875 cart...hardly an "entry level" cart).
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Sounds like an alignment, not software, problem.

The chance of that many records being damaged is very small when compared to the chance of a single misalignment.
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