Stellar Phono Channel Drift with Crap (but cleaned) LP Pressings - Anyone else?

Audio Components Preamplifiers
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I have my PS Audio Stellar Phono stages’ input dials for the MC Cart. with the resistance set extremely low (20Ω custom mode - back panel dials) along with the gain. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Ortofon Quintet Black/MoFi Table or my Bouncy House LP12/Benz Micro Wood body L Cart. When I play a cheaply pressed LP, the audio drifts from left to right and the phantom center is of course off by quite a bit. Play a decent new or gently used LP regardless of age and everything is locked in. To fix the volume drift on poor pressings. I just crank the gain which fixes the balance issue but gone is sweetness and detail using the “low gain” settings.

LP’s are always clean or cleaned beforehand.

Are there any other Stellar owners experiencing this as well ?

Not so much a complaint but just goes to show how sensitive Darren’s circuits are under the worst conditions.

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I haven’t experienced this but I am using a higher input impedance (500 ohms). If you are handy I would suggest that instead of using the Custom pot-controlled input (especially at such a low setting) that you instead use 47K and add a 20 ohm Vishay Metal Foil resistor in parallel within the connector or as an inline adapter. It will both lower the noise floor and sound much better. I did that for my loading. Here is a link.

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@mscardina Food for thought. Thanks Man !