Yes, it’s unforgivable to divert attention away from the FR-7, isn’t it? 😉
Getting back on the right - uh - track, changing the P2S distance of the FR-64S (or FX for that matter) when using the FR-7 is not a very good idea.
With P2S distance at 230mm you get perfect Stevenson alignment (the stylus ’hits’ all three ’o’ points on the Feickert protractor). This is clearly what Ikeda had intended. Changing to 231.5mm changes the geometry of the tonearm to Baerwald, but it will not be possible to align the FR-7 to this geometry. At least not according to the Feickert protractor. With the fixed headshell arrangement of the FR-7 there’s no way to adjust this.
I did try the Baerwald geometry with other (adjustable) cartridges, but I don’t hear the sonic benefits compared to Stevenson, so I decided to stick with Ikeda’s original specifications in all cases.
Getting back on the right - uh - track, changing the P2S distance of the FR-64S (or FX for that matter) when using the FR-7 is not a very good idea.
With P2S distance at 230mm you get perfect Stevenson alignment (the stylus ’hits’ all three ’o’ points on the Feickert protractor). This is clearly what Ikeda had intended. Changing to 231.5mm changes the geometry of the tonearm to Baerwald, but it will not be possible to align the FR-7 to this geometry. At least not according to the Feickert protractor. With the fixed headshell arrangement of the FR-7 there’s no way to adjust this.
I did try the Baerwald geometry with other (adjustable) cartridges, but I don’t hear the sonic benefits compared to Stevenson, so I decided to stick with Ikeda’s original specifications in all cases.