I am principally a digital music fan - I got into CD in 1985 and have thousands of the silver discs.

But I got back into vinyl about 5 years ago...

...with a cheap Project Primary phono USB Turntable (£200).

The Project has an inbuilt phono stage and an Ortofon 5e cartridge. The turntable came already setup with the Ortofon cartridge.

Over the last few years I have enjoyed ripping a few hundred albums.

I have the turntable connected to my PC soundcard via a twin phono to 3.5 jack cable.

I use Goldwave software for the rips - which I save as 24-48 flac (and play through my Raspberry Pi streamers).

Recently I noticed that in Goldwave the left channel is a bit quieter than the right.

I first checked the cartridge alignment which looked OK.

I used a spirit level to check that the turntable was level.

I changed the twin phono cable to mini jack cable for a better quality QED item.

I replaced the Ortofon 5e cartridge for a brand new one...

...but still the channel imbalance persists?

BTW I haven't checked the tracking weight as I don't have a meter (but the tracking weight is preset at the factory).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.