Inner Groove distortion - Can it ever be TOTALLY eliminated?

[mikewilliamson]

I have a Music Hall MMF5 and a Goldring 1042 cartridge.

Inner Groove distortion has been bugging me and I started futzing around with Cartridge Alignment to try and eliminate it, to no avail.

Has anyone ever truly eliminated inner grove distortion completely, having the outer groove and inner groove songs sound equally crisp and rich, or will these inner tracks always sound inferior in fidelity to outer groove tracks no matter what?

[Hanuman]

... or will these inner tracks always sound inferior in fidelity to outer groove tracks no matter what?

Yes, always. It's a constant-angular-velocity system so the speed of the groove under the stylus is higher at the outer versus the inner and, generally, higher speed means better quality. A normal pivoted arm can only achieve optimum tracking geometry at just two points of its arc. The various protractors and jigs reflect a number of differing opinions of where those two points should be. I assume it's possible to achieve zero tracking distortion at both the outer-most and inner-most points but such an alignment would result in huge distortion in the middle of the side. A linear-tracking (or pivoted tangential-tracking) tonearm can eliminate the tracking distortion by achieving optimum geometry across the whole of the cut area. Even then the fact remains that the maximum quality available inevitably diminishes towards the inner grooves, for the reason stated.

[Trackside]

Eliminating 'distortion' i.e mistracking should be possible as there is no reason why a good TT/arm/cart should not track properly but as stated there will always be a loss in 'fidelity' due to the velocity changes.

[cafe latte]

My Decca and my Stantons (881 and 681) with Jico stylus have no audable inner groove distortions, poor stylus are a lot to blame IMO.
Regards
CL

[SoundHarmonyMKII]

My Decca and my Stantons (881 and 681) with Jico stylus have no audable inner groove distortions, poor stylus are a lot to blame IMO.
Regards
CL

I would agree, my Nagaoka MP-11 Boron has no distortion problems, with the exception of overplayed records.

I would add keep the needle clean. This point can not be overstressed IMO.

[mikewilliamson]

Has anyone had any problems with the Goldring 1042 in this sense, then? Is it known to not track well on inner grooves?

This is driving me crazy.

[alternativeroute]

Have you tried the 'Stevenson alignment' - I find it better for carts that suffer inner groove distortion and sometimes to cure sibilance (but that is more usually anti-skate)...

Also experiment with VTF - I see the Goldring has quite a wide range (Playing Weight 1.5-2.0g (1.7g nom.))

Please keep us posted as I had my eye on a Goldring 1042 for an SME III arm I have...

[mikewilliamson]

Just tried Stevenson. No luck. Actually, it sounds worse to me.

I wish I had another 1042 stylus lying around to test with. Maybe it's a bad stylus and I'm agonizing over the VTA for nothing.

[mikewilliamson]

Does anyone know of an excellent technician in the Los Angeles area that could look at this for me? I'm not terribly impressed with some reviews for Audio Specialist in Studio City, nor do I like their $100 initial bench fee.

[cafe latte]

Just tried Stevenson. No luck. Actually, it sounds worse to me.

I wish I had another 1042 stylus lying around to test with. Maybe it's a bad stylus and I'm agonizing over the VTA for nothing.

Have you tried wet cleaning your stylus?
Either thes or isopropyl alcohol mixed 50 50 with water. Brush the stylus in the direction of play with a wet stylus brush, if you have never cleaned this way befor give it a good few applications as you need to remove smoking tar and other stuck crud that only the wet clean will remove. A dirty stylus needing a wet clean has caught me out a few times once I too ended up realigning the cart to no avail till I found out it was just a dirty stylus.
Regards
CL

[mikewilliamson]

I'll give it a shot, thanks.

[totomatic]

never had a problem with IGD in all my tears of using the turntable

[alternativeroute]

You can also try 'magic eraser' to clean the stylus (google it, they sell it under different brand names all over the world).

First prize would be to try another cartridge.

You can also look into the following:
* is the tonearm movement free all the way to the spindle ( to test, balance the arm and set the anti-skate to zero and then see if a light blow on the arm moves it freely to the spindle or instead of blowing push the arm with the edge of a small piece of 80grm copy paper)
* are you sure it's not a damaged LP or a bad pressing (Try a whole lot of different vinyl - new would be better as I have picked up loads of second hand vinyl that is damaged towards the inner groove due to badly set-up cartridges)
* have you tried different weight and anti-skate settings?

Lastly where in the world are you? Maybe there is a fellow VE enthusiast that can give you a hand (you will be amazed how an extra set of eyes can point out the bleeding obvious that you might have missed )

[mikewilliamson]

I'm in Burbank, CA (Los Angeles area).

I cleaned it with rubbing alcohol. Didn't work. Tried different weight and anti skate settings. Didn't work.

I bit the bullet and just bought another 1042 stylus right now. I'll update if it was just a worn stylus causing this when I get the new one.

What is the expected life expectancy for the average listener (say, 1 record a day) on a stylus? This one is about 3 1/2 years old.