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Cart not parallel after Mint LP alignment?

Howdy,

So after reading about 1000 paragraphs on how good the Mint LP Tractor is - I purchased one and had a marathon session yesterday with my new SL-1210 M5G, AT440MLa and Zupreme headshell...

After all was said and done - the alignment itself took 90 hard minutes - I am finding the cartridge sitting about 5-7 degrees "right" of center. The actual cantilever and stylus are about as dead on as I wanna go with it for now.

Now a comment and a question....

Question: Is this non-parallel result in the headshell normal? It's making me think I may have a bent cantilever or something.

Comment: I have run 10-12 sides thru the rig so far and I must say - I have not yet heard the "revelation" that others have described when comparing their alignments to other protractors or even the white Technics alignment gauge. The rig sounds good...but...what I am missing here.

I must temper the above by saying I have changed phono stages frequently in the last month as well...I was getting nicely familiar with a Bellari VP-130 and then moved that for a Cambridge which lasted less than a week and I now have a Moon LP3 with maybe 25 hours on it...Even my AT440MLa might have 40-50 hours on it as well....

I am thinking that a whole bunch of stuff might need to "burn" in before the system starts to really reveal itself.

But I am very concerned with the stylus/cantilever on the cart...even with all the moves the Mint required...I expected the cartridge to sit straight in the headshell...perhaps expecting too much?

Appreciate any feedback.

Cheers!

VP
vocalpoint
lewm
13,110 posts
 
For goodness sakes! What Vinyladdict wrote and what Markd51 seconded and what Dertonearm and others suggested is exactly what I wrote way back at the top. How much more reassurance do you need? The ultimate would be to get Yip to confirm that he uses Stevenson geometry when he makes a protractor for the Technics, if you do not care to believe all the other testimony.
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
"PATIENCE! 2-3 hours is not a long time your first time around to get it to the enth degree. Keep trying"

Polk is exactly correct.
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Indeed, what Lewm said.

This is self-evident. If you use a protractor with a different alignment scheme than a tonearm was designed for, the cartridge will not end up square to the headshell. Why would anyone expect otherwise?

Try aligning a cartridge to Baerwald points on a Rega arm. Same "problem", same reason.

Only a protractor made to the same alignment scheme as the tonearm will produce a headshell-square cartridge.
edtrout
11 posts
 
in case more reassurance is needed, I am hereby agreeing with Vinyladdict, Lewm, and Dougdeacon. If all you care about is getting the cartridge square with the headshell, you could have used the plastic jig that came with the Technics and saved a lt of money. The Mintlp is not just more precise than the Technics jig. It also uses a slightly different alignment geometry, which is why the cartridge must be twisted in relation to the headshell.
vocalpoint OP
10 posts
 
in case more reassurance is needed, I am hereby agreeing with Vinyladdict, Lewm, and Dougdeacon. If all you care about is getting the cartridge square with the headshell, you could have used the plastic jig that came with the Technics and saved a lt of money. The Mintlp is not just more precise than the Technics jig. It also uses a slightly different alignment geometry, which is why the cartridge must be twisted in relation to the headshell.

Reassurance duly noted. I am officially "past" the "square to the shell" question - but I am surprised how some people have reacted - like it's a federal crime to ask a question and try to understand all the angles. Uh - still learning over here, guys - everyday...sorry to not "know it all".

Anyhoo - now that I have spent a few evenings with this layout - and I am now getting comfy with it's "sound" - it's time to start comparing this setup - cart for cart - to another AT440MLa aligned using the standard Technics gauge.

Using the same 4 or 5 albums - I will play each album with the Minted cart first followed by another run with a standard aligned cart - to find out if there are the kind of differences to the level that some folks are claiming to hear.

Again - thanks again for the comments...

Cheers,

VP
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