One issue that often goes unnoticed when cutting records is how the playback stylus you use can actually create a bottleneck in your signal chain. This can lead to distortion and overcut causing skips all over the place.
When calibrating your playback system, you play a 0VU sine wave test tone, and calibrate your level meter to read 0dB. The issue in some cases can be that is doesn’t fully take gain staging into account.
Not all playback cartridges and styli are created equal. Some have a higher output voltage, while others are much lower. If you’re using a playback stylus with a low output, you’ll crank up the gain on your phono preamp just to get it to a usable level for calibrating playback to the 0dB reference.
The issue with some consumer grade RIAA preamps is that forcing a low output signal through it, you can easily push the internal stages into clipping. As an example, you could be pushing the volume of your cut to a point where you hear distortion, however your calibrated level meter may say it’s a reasonable volume. This is due to the RIAA preamp overloading and clipping the signal pre metering.
One simple way to solve this is by adding a clean gain stage after your RIAA preamp. Tools like the ART CleanBox Pro or a Radial booster are great for this. They give you a solid, transparent boost in level so you’re not relying on your phono stage to do all the heavy lifting if using a low voltage output stylus.
If you’ve ever struggled with playback distortion that doesn’t match what your meters are telling you, the issue might not be your lathe or your EQ settings, it could be as simple as the output voltage of your playback stylus and gain staging. We have seen this a fair few times now.
Always remember, your calibration is only as good as the weakest link in your chain. Check your cartridge specs, know your preamp’s limits, and if needed, add that extra bit of headroom with an inline booster!