Hi Chris & Dave! Funnyly, I watched through all the cartridge setup videos, and the long "testicles" video about cartridges inner qualities & problems the last three days. There is a lot of common assumptions and concepts about cartridge setup, and I have / had a bit of my own. Listening through Ledermanns videos is very inspiring and like a wave of clean fresh air into the brain. He is a f... genius.
Regarding azimuth I always wondered what to strive for when cartridge / cantilever combos of very expensive cartridges can be visibly off by three or more degrees - otherwise it wouldn't be visible.
So the cantilever/stylus can be twisted in the body, and we can assume that it's probably difficult to get repeatable precision in production below 1 degree azimuth angle.
The second question then arises: How exact is the mounting of the stylus in reference to the moving coil armature, or (around the cantilever axis rotationally) non-symmetric moving iron or magnet structures?All this results in the question: Does the coil/generator needs to be aligned exactly with the groove, or is it the stylus?Ledermann gives a clear and IMO decisive answer. The left/right tracing lines / points should optimally be on equal height – specially with line contact styli there is not much tolerance. Optimizing crosstalk often ends in tracing the upper edge of one groove / channel and getting (sometimes a lot of ) additionnal distortion.
Optimizing channel separation symmetry (as a one parameter measurement) yields in that sense wrong results.
I used to align my cartridges with mono recordings, or mono signals. I had the cartridge mono-strapped with switched +/- connections on one channel. The problem with this setup is that signal level differences between L and R result in less clear cancelling which gives a rather broad minimum. But interestingly in off-phase mono one can still hear the distortion more clearly. Maybe one should minimize *the distortion* in that setup. I got good results when keeping an ear on the distortion. Ie. minimizing the distortion and then in the minimum /optimal zone slightly adjust azimuth angle for minimal cross-talk.
Effectively one listens to the vertical signal in that setup (as in the Fozgometers reading) – with distortion appearing in the lateral signal because of suboptimal tracing in one channel, highlighted by the opff-phase setup.
I assume the Fozgometer has an optimized way to ignore the channel level differences and thus attainig a clearer null. But IMO doing adjustment by eye only on a meter eliminates the important audible changes. Ie. eliminating an important sonic parameter, the distortion, eliminates any remaining audible hint to tracing distortions due to stylus position.
Both the Fozgometer and the Feickert system align the generator vs. the recording instead of the stylus, and therefore they are misleading (to put it in diplomatic words). And they measure only one parameter instead of the more multi-dimensional listening process.
IMO Peter Ledermanns talks are a must hear&see for any analogue/vinyl lover.
Regarding azimuth I always wondered what to strive for when cartridge / cantilever combos of very expensive cartridges can be visibly off by three or more degrees - otherwise it wouldn't be visible.
So the cantilever/stylus can be twisted in the body, and we can assume that it's probably difficult to get repeatable precision in production below 1 degree azimuth angle.
The second question then arises: How exact is the mounting of the stylus in reference to the moving coil armature, or (around the cantilever axis rotationally) non-symmetric moving iron or magnet structures?All this results in the question: Does the coil/generator needs to be aligned exactly with the groove, or is it the stylus?Ledermann gives a clear and IMO decisive answer. The left/right tracing lines / points should optimally be on equal height – specially with line contact styli there is not much tolerance. Optimizing crosstalk often ends in tracing the upper edge of one groove / channel and getting (sometimes a lot of ) additionnal distortion.
Optimizing channel separation symmetry (as a one parameter measurement) yields in that sense wrong results.
I used to align my cartridges with mono recordings, or mono signals. I had the cartridge mono-strapped with switched +/- connections on one channel. The problem with this setup is that signal level differences between L and R result in less clear cancelling which gives a rather broad minimum. But interestingly in off-phase mono one can still hear the distortion more clearly. Maybe one should minimize *the distortion* in that setup. I got good results when keeping an ear on the distortion. Ie. minimizing the distortion and then in the minimum /optimal zone slightly adjust azimuth angle for minimal cross-talk.
Effectively one listens to the vertical signal in that setup (as in the Fozgometers reading) – with distortion appearing in the lateral signal because of suboptimal tracing in one channel, highlighted by the opff-phase setup.
I assume the Fozgometer has an optimized way to ignore the channel level differences and thus attainig a clearer null. But IMO doing adjustment by eye only on a meter eliminates the important audible changes. Ie. eliminating an important sonic parameter, the distortion, eliminates any remaining audible hint to tracing distortions due to stylus position.
Both the Fozgometer and the Feickert system align the generator vs. the recording instead of the stylus, and therefore they are misleading (to put it in diplomatic words). And they measure only one parameter instead of the more multi-dimensional listening process.
IMO Peter Ledermanns talks are a must hear&see for any analogue/vinyl lover.