First time question regarding PP-1

[stip78]

Visited the forum many times, just signed up. A LOT of helpful information here. I have a question with a little problem that I have recently encountered and I found it mentioned here but no real answer on what to do. I don't have a lot of funds in my turntable (project III, OM 20) or my phono stage (PP-1), so I understand my limitations but something went awry here and I can't figure it out.

A few weeks ago, things started sounding overloaded, not quite distorted but no warmth. I replaced the cartridge to the same results. I searched this forum and saw someone post about how sometimes a misfiring phono stage can give the indications of a faulty cartridge, so I unplugged my phono stage and put the table right into the phono of my receiver (basic 2 channel Denon) and it sounded warmer. When I first got the phono stage it sounded way better than the Denon phono stage but now something seems to be wrong.

Is it possible that the PP-1 is damaged? How do I check? The symptoms were exactly like the post I read regarding it (overloaded sound, too much treble). It wasn't like this before. I have an electrical friend who thought it could be something as simple as a faulty power supply not generating proper power. I don't know. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[stip78]

From Rsub8:

You indicate your phono stage as being "pretty cheap." Just be certain that the problem isn't arising in the phono stage... that's tricky business, because (depending on the design of your phono stage) the treble range can be required to pass much hotter signal levels than the midrange. If the phono stage overloads, the clipping / limiting (and intermodulation distortion) can masquerade as cartridge mistracking, when trying to reproduce sibilant sounds that are rich in treble content. This can be difficult to diagnose easily, unless you can swap in another phono stage for comparison... don't be too quick to blame the cartridge, though.

[Ian Lascell]

I'm afraid I don't know what the problem you are encountering is. Hopefully somebody here will. But I wanted to say welcome to the forum. The people here are really helpful and I'm sure somebody will have an idea what is going on.

[HiFi Guy 008]

I'd take the PP-1 to a dealer/friend's and listen to it on their system.