Distorted bass on one chanel - running out of ideas
Hi everyone,
I’m slowly losing my mind over a vinyl playback issue and genuinely don’t know what else to test.
One channel has a muddy, scratchy/distorted bass response, especially during quiet passages, jazz, upright bass and acoustic music. One side sounds rough and “scraping,” while the other channel sounds completely clean.
What confuses me most is that the setup used to work perfectly fine. Then from one day to the next the issue suddenly appeared.
I attached a video mainly so you can see the setup and behavior of the system.
Important: the audio in the video is NOT the raw phone recording. I separately recorded the sound and synced it underneath the video because the phone mic compressed the distortion too much to hear it properly otherwise.
Originally I used a Braun Audio 300. Since then I’ve replaced almost everything trying to isolate the problem:
new stylus
different tracking force / adjustments
different speakers
different cartridge
moved speakers off shelves to eliminate resonance
eventually even replaced the entire system with a Braun Audio 2
And somehow the issue is STILL there.
What’s especially strange is that the distortion always stays on the same side physically in the room, even after swapping speakers/connections.
So what could this possibly still be?
Would seriously appreciate any ideas 🙏