What could be wrong?

Update...
I changed the turntable connection to a different input on my linestage preamp and there was no change; the right channel was still much louder than the left. I then swapped the left/right channels from the tonearm cable to my phono preamp, and the problem switched sides. At this point, I figured the problem was either the cartridge, tonearm cable (which is relatively new), or the phono preamp. I then swapped back the left/right channels on the phono preamp, and the problem disappeared. Everything is back to normal now.

I suppose I'll just wait til the problem occurs again (if it happens again) to see if I can determine what's wrong. If it was either a cartridge, tonearm, or phono preamp issue, isn't it odd that the problem just fixed itself? Strange.

calgarian

Thanks for everyone's responses. I figured out what was wrong. It appears the connection from the cartridge to the tonearm cable was the culprit. When I originally attached the very thin tonearm leads to the pins on the cartridge, I just slipped them on; they are a bit on the loose side I'll be the first to admit. Obviously the connection wasn't very good, causing the sound from the left channel to fade out. All I did to fix the problem was just wiggle the connections and everything was ok.

So how do I prevent this in the future? I was thinking of using a pair of needle nose pliers and just crimping the connection to make it fit tighter. I'll only do this as a last resort because the cartridge pins are SO small and I don't really want to damage anything. Are there any other options for me? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

calgarian