Tracking error distortion audibility

Holy moly, you are dead serious in what you are saying as I can read ---- BUT something does not gel at all.

1) SME adds a overhang template, with a machined bushing for the V! (it goes over the centre pin). Then you put your stylus into a tiny prick-holed template (marked by a cross) and adjust the overhang so that the arm geometry (arm is tapered, yes) aligns visually, from above with the template! There is a lengthy section in the manual just dealing with that and exactly how to do it (and how not to do it). Also the is a special key tool to do the sliding bit (nothing like hand moving here). All that just to get this micron exact point -- with NO gauge to support your idea? Sound pretty far out, now doesn't it?

2) There'd be NO means, other than some funky optical measuring equipment, maybe the latest for a tool-shop, that would be able to set the arm as you suggest.

3) Since there are precision holes (for cap screws) drilled and tapped into the ALU arm-board, they could be just fine and no pivot-post movement mechanism needed, just some oblong holes, right?

4) There seems to be a MAJOR discrepancy here with some other expert Forum members that maintain that the pivot to centre-pin distance is NOT of the ULTIMATE importance as I hear it from you.

5) If it really was, why would SME for the last 50 years maintain a pivot post slide on the "best tone arm in the world" (their words, not mine) It written on the box, believe it or not.

6) So, I guess I hear your argument loud and clear, but SME can't be the one to support it, rightly or wrongly... And I do NOT say: you don't have a point.

I got to digest that bit! Do some geometry to see if your argument is valid, though.

It may just turn out as yet another funky argument, like all the differing anti-skating, and dynamic VTF stuff.

I'm baffled, but thank you for sharing,
Axel

This discussion about the SME V arm and overhang adjustment is interesting and somewhat confusing. I had the same conversation with Yip of MINT LP. I had to supply the arm to spindle distance as specified by SME, the arm pivot distance to the center of the catridge mounting holes as specified by SME and most importantly, the mounting hole to stylus-tip distance as specified my my catridge manufacturer-Air Tight. This last was hard to get, but once I gave it to Yip, he made an arc-type protractor specific to my arm/cartridge combination and sent it to me. I realigned my cartridge which was off by about 2mm from using the SME alignment tools and adjusted the zenith and azimuth. I presume the new alignment is more accurate, because it sounds significantly better and under 10x magnification, the cantilever lines up with the tangent lines on the protractor.

I have found the SME V arm to be very inconvenient to adjust, but it sounds fine and it can be properly aligned. Though I still don't know if this is the source of your "tracking error distortion".

Honestly, - what I have described is not my opinion, but simply the physical fact and the geometry. You do not have to "believe" me or the "arguments" made. Please read the papers published in Audio Engineering Society Jopurnal during the 1950ies to 1990ies about tonearm geometry - these are the standards of tonearm geometry - nothing else. SME hoped that all cartridge designers would agree to a standard in horizontal distance between the mounting holes and teh stylus. If all cartridges would feature the very same distance there, everything would be fine.
They did not and still do not.
So any tonearm unable to adjust the overhang (with the spindle - bearing pivot distance (=mounting distance) of course a fixed value) has a big problem.

Please make a drawing on a sheet of paper - the visual manifestation will help to illustrate and clarify the point. It is impossible to adjust overhang by moving the whole tonearm !! Overhang is a value that DEPENDS on the geometry of the given tonearm !!! The geometry of ANY pivot tonearm has one foundation: the spindle-bearing distance (= mounting distance).
The whole calculation of its geometry roots in this value.
If you move the pivot of the bearing away from the specified value as given by the designer, the whole geometry of your tonearm is gone!
We are talking plain, 2-dimensional geometry only here - this is nothing that can be discussed in any way. It is fixed since about 2500 years when its foundations were displayed and described in ancient Greece (well, - and before in Egypt....).
Its not whether I am right or wrong - it is the physical and geometrical fact.
SME simply made a mistake in taking a specific value for granted (the distance between the mounting holes and the stylus being the same in all cartridges).

Dertonarm,
I understand your simple and accurate description of tonearm geometry very well. Thanks. It really does make sense, and perhaps SME made this mistake back when their arms were originally disigned. My only point is that once an owner knows the stylus tip to mounting hole distance and gets a specific protractor made for his/her arm/cartridge combination, the SME V arm can be very accurately positioned and the cartridge properly aligned. Surely, this can be attested to by happy SME arm owners.