I haven't used the turntable for some time. Recently I tried to use it and it is terribly distorted. Carefully cleaned and inspected I tried another amplifier with the same result, cartridge faulty?

nice table, but i need to know more info: distortion with only the record playing or also a sound with the unit only on, which cables do you use and did you have cleaned the rca cable and the sme connector(those 4 pins where you screw your om or concorde in) with cotton on a stick and the right cleaning stuff and push them a couples of times , to see if they come back easily, other wise a drip of lubricator for elektronics on them . greetings richard

The only thing that might cause something like that is a build up of static. You can buy anti-static products for records and turntables. I tend to use an anti-static spray which also cleans the records.

It doesn't happen often but I suspect that the high gain input jack is defective. With nothing plugged into either input jack part of the signal is grounded and there should not be any noise. It might be that plus a noisy preamp tube. Try swapping the first two tubes to see if there is less noise. Carefully bang your fist or use an insulated tool's handle to hear if the noise changes. It might be an intermittent solder connection as well.

is the vinyl clean vinyl is supposed to sound weird thats what its all about. if the records not clean it could make it sound ****

If your cd player is the problem you should get a new one. They are very cheap and its an easy fix.

Sorry it could be the cartridge! They can fail at anytime, only the stylus will wear with time. However it could be the amplifer's magnetic cartridge pre-amp. If you look inside your amp and trace back from the phono socket you should find the pre-amp. If it is distorting on both channels it's probably an IC that has failed.

it sounds like your cartridge is shot and damaged.
this turntable has fixed cartridge and only the stylus can be changed.

check out this manual: http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/resource_library/literature/0fb01429606842cf/at_pl50_om.pdf

is it possible your new reciever has a built in phono pre-amp?

If so, you need to switch off the pre-amp inside the turntable (lift up the rubber matt, and rotate the plate untill you see the switch at the back)

Try again now?

you shoudnt run your turntable through line m8 just phono use line for cd decks

Your turntable is a preamp. Your amplifier might be going bad. did you connect it into phono? dont connect it into the cd or dvd input because those wont work.