What era of music and pressings are you listening to?
How well used is the vinyl?
Any track or mostly inner tracks?
I’d not automatically assume the turntable or setup is at fault. In my experience, the vinyl itself can play a huge role. I have stuff from the 70s that is both overly “loved” and on some pretty translucently thin vinyl. It’s fun to spin but those types of discs are a far cry from better (and less worn) pressings and the comparison to digital is pretty shocking. I find many old mass produced discs do get muddy on the final third inside tracks. The natural loss of resolution on analogue CAV cutting shouldn’t be noticeable but sadly is on some stuff.
Mainly new pressings of things like Peter Gabriel (So), Bozz Scaggs (Dig) & Amy Winehouse. Not exactly erudite, I know . None of the new LPs have been played more than 5-6 times each, and always on the Rega Planar 6 c/w Ania. I can’t recall the track locations other than the Peter Gabriel one which is mid side.
I’ll be the first to profess being a newbie with the lower end of a “good” hi-fi system, and as Audio-T said yesterday, seeing as it is most noticeable on some LPs does suggest that the issue was due in part to the quality of the pressings (/recording / mastering). I will continue to experiment with the rest of my collection (~100 LPs from mid '70s to mid '80s) and see how it sounds, but initial impression is that the change to the Rega Fono MC has made a noticeable difference already.
Interesting about the PG So reissue. I thought it was rather good and in some ways I preferred it to my original copy which always sounded just a little bit too hard and bright compared to say his 3rd album or Security (the US Sheffield Lab cut of this one was wonderful).
. None of the new LPs have been played more than 5-6 times each, and always on the Rega Planar 6 c/w Ania. I can’t recall the track locations other than the Peter Gabriel one which is mid side.