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How important is Cartridge Overhang? Need help

Just received a Mint protractor for my Pro-ject 2 Xperience. I started the processes of setting the Overhang and it seems that my Ortofon HMC 20 can't achieve the proper overhang. The cartridge is maxed out to the front of the head shell and the result I get is: at the outside of the arc it sits perfectly and on the inside it sits behind the arc. I guess my question is this how important is overhang and if it is important is there a good compromise.Should I just get as close as I can and worry more about alignment?
128x128wilson667
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Agree w Tom. Something does not seem to be right.
bpoletti
1,552 posts
 
It sounds like the arm was positioned using effective length from spindle to pivot instead of spindle-to-pivot length (eff. length minus overhang).
dgad
782 posts
 
By the way overhang or more exactly a change in effective length of the tonearm via poor setup is not as important as VTA, VTA, anti skate or azimuth. Just a FYI. Do the measurements. The slight change in effective length / overhang can either result in increase maximum distortion or even increased overall distortion. But it also can result in reduced maximum distortion or reduced overall distortion and change your Null Point from Lofgren A to Lofgren B or otherwise or visa/ versa. If you run the distortion specifications the change might in fact be not dramatic.

But incorrect VTA can result in a major sonic compromise. So all the work to align HTA without correct VTA or otherwise is really for very little. After taking a sample of typical errors in setup and checking the resulting distortion figuress the results in fact are that different than the "prescribed" HTA of the arm in question.

Feel free to take me up on this but this can be mathematically validated.

So is the Mint or any other protractor that importaant. And that answer is it depends on the arm/ setup and more.
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