Surface Noise From One Channel

Hey everyone. I've been noticing that if I ever encounter much surface noise, it seems to come out of the right channel only. Could this be a problem with azimuth? The music comes through fine in both channels and I don't notice cross-talk so I don't really know. Any thoughts?

 

Does this noise happen with all your records or just some? Some pressing defects, such as non-fill (aka 'stitching'), often appear in only one channel and may be unrelated to your setup.

 

I get this on the right channel a lot too, always at the beginning of a side and it usually goes away after about a minute or so.

Very weird but when I replaced the stylus on my AT150MLX, it became more noticeable to me. I did a direct comparison. I put on a record, heard this static-y type sound in the right channel. Put the old stylus back in, same record, same everything, no noise. Put the new one back in, back came the noise.

I've been listening to records for many, many years and I remember this type of thing cropping up occasionally. I just learned to live with it.

 

Funny i always get more surface noise on the left channel

 

The only time I've ever experienced this was when something was caught on the needle, usually a small fiber or hair or something. Easiily fixed by wiping the record and cleaning off the needled and starting to play again.

Sometimes when something that's hard to track is hard-panned to one side, there will be a little bit more noise or the like, or if something is used and worn, sometimes wear and grit and noise will appear more in certain sound passages than others, and if it's panned you might hear that more in that channel.

If you're hearing surface noise regularly on one channel and not just on a particular pressing, this would seem to indicate a stylus, setup, or other problem that should be addressed I would think...

 

I used to experience this as well, usually through the first track or so of a side.

Once I adjusted azimuth accurately (with test equipment) that went away entirely. It was only a very small adjustment but it did the trick.

 

Always the left channel for me....usually IGD

 

Same here-

 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm having this exact same issue. I recently changed cartridges and didn't notice this before. If there is surface noise present on the record, it can mainly be heard through the right channel only, at least at the beginning of a side.

Did this turn out to be an azimuth issue for you? I was considering getting a Fozgometer and test record , but I've been reluctant to spend the money.

 

Also check your anti-skate setting. Surface noise in the left channel means anti-skating is set too high, noise in the right channel means anti-skate is set too low.

 

The risks of light-tracking carts. Never happens with 3 or more grs.

 

Hi. I bought the Fozgometer and a test record and the issue went away. I've also changed carts since posting so I don't know if there was an issue with my cart or not.

 

Thanks. I think I corrected it for the most part by adjusting azimuth a bit by eye/ear and playing with the antiskate. The cartridge body was not quite parallel, and I think there was too much antiskate causing the cantilever to skew like this / a bit when I lowered the stylus.

I would like to get my hands on one of those Fozgometers though to see what I could do with it. It's really difficult for me to stop fiddling around with setup!

 

My antiskate was off, though it appeared to be off the opposite of what I would have thought. It was too much, and had the cantilever leaning like this / a bit. I tried some different records and found some with noise in the left and some in the right, so perhaps I was just hearing an unusual number of records with grove wear on the right before. New records don't present any issue, and channel separation appears correct from what I can discern by ear.

 

I get this sort of thing when the house shifts and my table goes out of level.