Thanks guys for brainstorming. I purposely left out the name of the cartridge because it's from an unknown cartridge maker (an 86-year old gentleman who has been making MC carts for 30+ years) from Taiwan. The story of the cartridge itself and how I ended up with it are very intriguing. I'll post the story some other time. To say the least, the cartridge is good and it can take on most of sub US$2000 cartridges. Best part, it's darn cheap! But unless you have friends in Taiwan, you can't buy one.
I took down the cartridge last night, and reinstalled it step by step incorporating all your suggestions. What I found out was that at the time the stylus touches the vinyl, the lift underneath the arm tube had not gone down completely, and that's the cause of the problem. I was able to just use my fingers to lower the cartridge without any issues. But this makes me nervous. This did not happened when I was using the Shelter 901.
So my conclusion was either:
1/ this cartridge may have a shorter height than most other cartridges, so it is hitting the vinyl earlier (before the lift is completely down)
2/ The lift is sticking, not lowering fast enough to "get out of the way" before the stylus hits the vinyl.
Will continue to investigate and check with SME. Again, thanks all for help brainstorming!
FrankC
I took down the cartridge last night, and reinstalled it step by step incorporating all your suggestions. What I found out was that at the time the stylus touches the vinyl, the lift underneath the arm tube had not gone down completely, and that's the cause of the problem. I was able to just use my fingers to lower the cartridge without any issues. But this makes me nervous. This did not happened when I was using the Shelter 901.
So my conclusion was either:
1/ this cartridge may have a shorter height than most other cartridges, so it is hitting the vinyl earlier (before the lift is completely down)
2/ The lift is sticking, not lowering fast enough to "get out of the way" before the stylus hits the vinyl.
Will continue to investigate and check with SME. Again, thanks all for help brainstorming!
FrankC