[drk]

i bought a rega p3-24 with pre-installed elys cartridge. the man in the shop set up the bias adjustment for me. i have it connected to quad 99 pre-amp's phono stage. from there it goes to wharfedale diamond 8.2 active monitors.

so, the problem is following: on the outer rims of any LP i play it starts playing normally and then after about 20 seconds into playing the left channel of the recording gradually quickly gets extremely distorted and just goes to silence and randomly plays the recording through noise/distortion. the right channel is ok all of the time. but on the inner rim of the LP this thing doesn't happen.

i have to note that all of my records are very old and all of them are at least a little warped. also, i've noticed that the plate of the p3 while i watch it spinning isn't spinning 100% leveled horizontally. very near, but not 100% leveled. is this normal or do i have a faulty p3?

help me please.

 

[Duggeh]

If you swap the cables around does the effect move to the right channel?

 

[drk]

yes, if i swap the cables to the preamp for right and left channels, it moves to the other channel.

however, if it was a problem with the pre-amp or cables themselves, then the whole things wouldn't work at all, am i right? but it does work alright on the inner half of LPs.

one other thing i've noticed when the sound starts to distort and "suffocate" like that - when i lift the tonearm up just a bit and immediately put it back where it was, the playback is normal and after about 5 secs it just gradually suffocates and distorts again.

i really have no clue what this could be about.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drk /img/forum/go_quote.gif yes, if i swap the cables to the preamp for right and left channels, it moves to the other channel.

Sounds like a faulty cartridge. I would take it back to the dealership and get it looked at.

 

[drk]

yes, well the channel swap with cables definitely ruled out the preamp as being source of the fault.

however, upon further inspection, i've noticed that the glass plate onto which records are placed is not 100% horizontally leveled all the time when it's spinning. it actually goes up and down quite a bit, about 1mm or so. also, the base onto which the plate is put when looked from front is a bit higher on its right than on its left. could this be the reason for the trouble?

i don't really think its the cartridge, since it plays 7" singles and inner parts of 12" LPs perfectly. and if the plate onto which records are placed is not even, than i suppose it would be warped more on its outer rims...hmmm

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drk /img/forum/go_quote.gif however, upon further inspection, i've noticed that the glass plate onto which records are placed is not 100% horizontally leveled all the time when it's spinning. it actually goes up and down quite a bit, about 1mm or so. also, the base onto which the plate is put when looked from front is a bit higher on its right than on its left. could this be the reason for the trouble?

That's pretty serious. If when you remove it and put it back on it can't sit straight on the plastic subplatter or this itself is distorted then your main bearing is possibly damaged. Definitely take it back to the dealer and get it looked at.