cartridge trouble.

my tt has decided to put out sound on one channel only , the left one.
when i turn my balance/volume to the right i get a buzzing and the faint sound of music.
ive checked the wiring and it looks ok , has my cartridge done one?
can i check if it has by re-arranging the cartridge to arm leads?
if so what leads di i swap over , they are colour coded.
the cartridge is an ortofon 510 mk11

 

Probably not - sounds like it could well be an amp issue. The faint sound of music is most likely breakthrough from the other channel.

 

before messing with the catridge tags, just swap the outputs to the phono amp - if its shifts chanel the its either the arm wiring or the cart, if it doesn't look down the chain.

 

ok guys , i changed the phonos and the sound shifted channels , so , i switched the white and red on the back of the head shell and the sound shifted again from one speaker to the other.
this is a dud cart isnt it?

 

Yup :-(

 

defo.

 

yes..BUT in all the years I've had a turntable which is about 35 of them.. I've never had a cartridge go on me. Does that really happen OR could it be that your amplifier went 'faulty' on the input stage of the phono input 'taking' out the cartridge? In which case it may happen again to your next cartridge.

 

and to counter balance that most people will have had one or more go on them, i have.

 

I'm not at all sure that a faulty pre-amp can damage a cartridge.

In all my cartridge ownership days I've never had one go faulty either - but it does happen.

 

Yes, a faulty phono preamp can damage the coil, depending on the input stage design.

 

Is it more likely that the input stage of the phono input went faulty than the cartridge itself?

 

Could be. I would test the inputs first with a volt meter before connecting another cartridge. Don't ask me how high the voltage has to be to burn the coil but above 10s of millivolts might be bad.

I had a problem years back with a Naim NAP140 which went DC on one channel and damaged the loudspeaker. The dealer at the time connected a pair of loudspeakers to test the amp and blew his loudspeaker!