Phantom + A90 question

It may well be a non-issue in practice. With the front-center and rear-inside points touching the headshell along with the two screws, that's four secure points of contact, which is probably enough to maintain adequate rigidity. If the inside screw is tightened first, the cartridge shouldn't tilt when the outside screw is tightened, although over-tightening it would create countervailing pressure, if not torque, on the cartridge body. Any slight tilting could be corrected with the Phantom's easy azimuth adjustment. Still, the idea of one point out of contact bothers me a bit in theory, so I'm curious whether others have taken measures.

Hi bill,
With unipivot bearings, they visually ride the groove different from gimble, quote on quote level heads shell with gimble type arms. You need a fozgometer to get it right with a graham, IMO. So even if the mate between cart and head shell isn't exact, you will correct that anomaly via Foz azimuth or o scops, graham head shells tilt inward by 2-3 degrees from vertical, ime

Hi Rockit,

I'm with you and use a Foz for azimuth, so I'm unconcerned about that aspect of any tilting. The nagging question for me is the solidity of the connection between cartridge and headshell. I'm getting the impression, since no one seems to have taken measures, that it's really not a problem. When my upgraded Supreme and rebuilt A90 arrive (tomorrow, fingers crossed), I'll try it both ways and report back.

Bill

I wondered about the same thing when I was using the A90 with the Phantom. In my setup two of the ridges are in contact with the Phantom headshell while the left rear ridge is completely outside the headshell area - see this pic.

The same situation existed with the Ortofon Jubilee in my setup.

In practice the A90 sounded great and I doubt contact with the third ridge would have altered the sound - at least with an arm having easy azimuth adjustment like the Phantom.

Nice pic, Tobes. I'll relax about mounting the A90. Seems like a non-issue. Thanks.