It sounds as though you are due a replacement cartridge.
Recently I went to a customer's home to perform the cartridge alignment service I provide with purchases and at nominal cost on others. The customer had upgraded his tonearm and cartridge from the previous ones which he had removed and put aside. I went about my business using the SMARTractor to set the overhang and offset angle, followed by setting the tracking force precisely at that recommended by the manufacturer. The next step in the process is to connect my computer to the phono stage's output to use with the Feickert Adjust+ software, starting with crosstalk and phase response measurements involved in the azimuth adjustment procedure.
At the initial setting of 0 degrees (headshell level when viewed from the front) I was surprised to observe about 6 dB of channel imbalance. Not entirely discouraged, I took several more readings at various azimuth settings. At the final azimuth setting where the phase curves intersected, there was still about 4 dB of imbalance. I disconnected the customer's phono stage and connected the small one I keep in my toolbox to check the readings. The imbalance remained, so I disconnected the computer and informed the customer he had a defective cartridge. This was immediately confirmed when we put on an LP and heard the image drastically off center.
That evening I emailed him the azimuth test results (as PDF files), including the crosstalk and phase curve graphs, as proof he could present to the dealer, along with my comments in which I expressed that he had a factory lemon and he should expect a replacement cartridge. The customer took the defective cartridge back to the dealer and presented him with the results and comments. It would have been interesting to hear the subsequent telephone conversations between dealer and distributor, but it stands to reason they were very embarrassed, rightfully so. Considering the cartridge alone cost the better part of $3000, I think not only did the manufacturer fail to test the cartridge before shipping, the dealer failed the customer by not providing any setup, instead presumably handing him a couple of boxes, even though the dealer is less than 15 miles from the customer. According to the customer, the dealer and distributor had asked a lot of questions about what had been done to identify such issues. Well, the Feickert software has been out for several years and has been discussed by Fremer, Valin, and many others, so it's not new and is well proven in the field. The numbers don't lie -- the cartridge the customer received was clearly defective, something the manufacturer should have caught but didn't, and something any dealer worth his salt would catch by doing even a basic setup and brief listening test. Both dropped the ball, in my opinion. Neither was done, so the customer got a nasty surprise. And you wonder why high end audio sometimes gets a bad name.
Realizing the problem after the fact, the dealer told the customer the replacement cartridge would take a couple of weeks to get. But then the customer wrote back later saying the replacement was going to be delayed so instead he ordered another model by the same manufacturer costing $1000 more. That doesn't sound honest, and at the very least it's adding insult to injury. I think I would have demanded the more expensive cartridge at little or no extra cost because of the big hassle, and if they weren't willing to do that I'd expect a refund.
I think the customer got the short end of the deal. What would you have done?
