Patrick,
Sorry to hear your trouble. I am no expert but would like to offer my thoughts as I have the Chenin. Assuming that you already replaced the tubes in your Syrah, my question is:
1.) Are you using a step up tranny?
If so, please bear in mind that the Syrah can only take 2.5 mV input max. Unless your cart is 0.5 mV and below and your setting is 1:5, then you will have a problem. I know this because I tried with my Shelter 901 at 1:5 setting.
2.)When you said "distortion", does it have a symptom like one channel cutting out as well?
Because this is exactly what happened to mine everytime a tranny is connected to it.
3.) With the tranny, does it get better at say 100 Ohms setting instead of the 47k on the Syrah? Also, if you do not use a tranny, do you hear the same symptoms (disortion)at the 47k, 1K, and so on (depending on your cart)?
If so, you are definitely overloading the phono section.
Hope this helps.