The further in the tone arm travels, the more HF distortion.

[GuyNoir]

It seems to me it's always been the case. Guitar twangs are especially bad, even on new vinyl, Strings also seem to bring out the worst. The last two cuts on an album are really bad Since my turntable has no adjustments beyond overhang, do I need to get a high falootin' TT to avoid this, or is it the nature of the medium? Cart and stylus have way less than 40 hours on them.

Thanks

[blue_lateral]

Even though theres no adjustment, have you checked the alignment? I think I would do that if you havent. The alignment should be perfect at two spots, one of those is fairly close to the center. It sounds like this might not be the case.

[Celt]

Does it have anti-skate? Have you checked it?

[GuyNoir]

Anti-skate and tracking force are correct; alignment wasn't. I needed to pull the cart ahead a few millimeters, and twist the cart body clockwise a bit.
Now for some listening.

Thanks gentlemen!

[GuyNoir]

I'm hearing some detail not heard before on the album in question. The distortion is all but gone, though I suppose I've made my own grooves from the misalignment.

Edit:

OMG what a very dramatic difference in another album...I can hardly believe it's the same one!

For some reason, I thought that once you set the overhang according to Technics, there was no adjustment possible (very little side to side motion is possible in the headshell, though just enough to make it right, as it turns out).

[Dansk]

I did exactly the same thing with my Shure M92. I assumed because it was a dirt cheap bottom of the line cart the distortion was just what you get for the money. I'd aligned it perfectly (or so I thought) by downloading a protractor off the internet and lining up the cartridge body with it. Then I had a thought. I lined it up by the cantilever instead of the cart body, and surprise surprise, it was out by a good 5-10 degrees. Once I fixed that I discovered parts in music that I'd never heard before, and a sonic depth that was incredible. (Again, calibrated by my expectations for the cart, not by more recent experiences.) The importance of alignment cannot be overstated.

Right now I'm using a (correctly aligned) Shure Omni, which is lightyears ahead of the M92. I'm looking into an M97 to replace that when the time comes.

[Jukin Jay]

It seems to me it's always been the case. Guitar twangs are especially bad, even on new vinyl, Strings also seem to bring out the worst. The last two cuts on an album are really bad Since my turntable has no adjustments beyond overhang, do I need to get a high falootin' TT to avoid this, or is it the nature of the medium? Cart and stylus have way less than 40 hours on them.

Thanks

Some of it may be alignment and anti-skate. some of it is the nature of the medium. The linear groove velocity is much less towards the center of a record than at the edge. All else being equal, high frequency signal to noise ratio will be worse.

Theoretically, if made to the same standards with the same material, a 78-RPM record would sound much better than an LP.