[nathanm]

Does anyone know what is happening when loud parts of the music creates distortion on the signal that quickly disappears when it gets quiter?  Is the needle itself causing it?  I read something about excess magnetic flux building up in the cart.  Are there any phono amp settings that affect this?  I wish I knew if it was mechanical or electrical.

I've got a Benz Micro ACE on a Rega RB600 and I get this nasty fuzzy distortion on some albums in the loud bits.  Can't seem to figure out what's wrong.

[Mathew_M]

I have the same problem on some recordings with my mmf5 with stock goldring cart.  I notice it on older or used vinyl which is 90 % of my collection.  I assume that it's caused from either static buildup or damaged vinyl that my goldring is having difficulty tracking.  I was going to upgrade to the Shure cartridge that supposedly works magic on crapped up vinyl.

[Bill Baker]

You may want to check the tracking and alignment on the cartridge. I had the same problem on the MMF-5 to find out it was a cartridge setting  situation.
  My symtoms were a bit different where as I would start to get distortion after reaching about midway through an album and more noticable on heavy passages. Proper alignment and tracking on the heavier side of specs (about 2 g on the Goldring) made things much better. The Goldring on the MMF-5 is a nice cart for the price but can be unforgiving on older, not well cared for vinyl.
 Just a thought.