channel imbalance on phono

I'm trying to work out where a problem lies.. with the turntable, I'm getting a strong channel imbalance - more or less equal hi/mid on either speaker but very little bass on one. by swapping things around I know it isn't the preamp or cables - so it could be either the cartidge or the Diablo phono stage. a couple of times one channel has gone almost completely, when switching off and reconnecting the cables into the phono stage has helped, so I'm leaning towards the latter as the culprit. Any suggestions?

 

channel imbalance

Not an anti-skating or cartridge alignment issue?

BTW I seemed to have a similar problem. Bass imbalance without mid-high imbalance. This was on a non-flat record. This record was a bit shaped like one of those southeast asian rice-farmer hats, if you know what i mean? As in the label was lower and the outer edge was hovering slightly above the platter surface. This could imply that it's caused by an azimuth problem. I first thought one of my woofers died but luckily that wasn't it...

 

You've checked the speakers ?

 

other sources such as cd and radio work fine - and I've swapped around inputs on the preamp, also the cables themselves, so I know it's narrowed down to the phono set up. It happens on all records. I'll have a fiddle with anti-skate and the cartridge tonight - really just want to close out some options before having to send back the phono stage to be checked.

 

Have you swapped the inputs from the arm into the phono pre? If the problem remains in the same channel then you can pretty much point the finger at the preamp. If it swaps channels then the finger points at the cart or its setup.

 

check the cartridge tags.

 

good thinking sir - I'll try tonight.

 

I've narrowed it down to the cartridge, and nothing I do by way of realigning it, cleaning the tags etc helps, so it looks as if it's damaged. It's an Ortofon MC15 - can these things be repaired, or does it sound like a chuck and replace jobby?

 

cartridges can be repaired ... but I strongly suspect in this case for more than the cost of a new one - the likes of the Expert Stylus Co should be able to help there.

Its usually only worthwhile on exotic (read expensive) cartridges OR sometimes people have been known to get cheaper but classic cartridges hotrodded - the DL-103 spings to mind. Realistically though it sounds like the bin.