How much difference if the tonearm is mounted 5mm

Dear Griffit: "  I listen to records and know what I 'hear'! ", yes but what you don't know is the distortion levels generated for your choosed alignment till you use " white papers "/calculator of those white papers equations. 
Tonearm/cartridge alignment is just geometry not rocket science but even that you need to work with " numbers " where " subjectivity " is not enough.

Of course that if you don't care  about distortions levels then you can do whatever you want.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Raul, read the opening post.  A tone arm was bought.  Should he drill the mounting hole at the given dimensions per the manual?  You say yes.   Why?  Because the manual says so?  Sorry but mistakes often get made on drawings.  I'm a Aerospace engineer and I have correct hundreds.  Who said that the arm in question actually measured what the manual says they all are expected to measure?  To drill a hole in your arm board because some stranger says that is where most of the arms he has manufactured should be located is just plain wrong!  That arm should be measured. S2P determined.  Then drilled.  It is not rocket science. It is just plain common sense.  We are not talking text book geometry here.  We are talking about one particular tone arm. 
Regards,

ds, Have you really observed such errors?  I am putting myself in your shoes.  In my thought experiment, I have a new tonearm, and the manual says to mount it so as to achieve a pivot to spindle distance of 215mm (for example).  What measurement would I make of my sample of said tonearm in order to know that following this instruction would be a mistake?  I guess that could be distance from pivot to center of headshell slots, for one example.  But manufacturers don't often even supply that spec.  So how did you know that you had a "bad" sample of any particular tonearm?  I respect that your training and life experience may have equipped you to detect and solve such problems better than I.  In my imagination, badly made samples would be more likely to have out of spec bearing friction, much more likely than to be significantly (could define as +/-0.5mm???) longer or shorter than specification.  As I noted above, there is also the case where thorough analysis of the geometry might lead one to prefer a different P2S for a given tonearm from that which is recommended, but that still assumes all of the samples of that tonearm are alike.

Hi Lewm,
I am confused. On my Feickert protractor, there are 3 different geometries for alignment, S, B, and L. Could i use it to align with Stevenson or the tractor is only acurate for only the Baerwald?
Thanks,
Calvin

Dear Dangcao: Sure that Lewm ( Hola! ) will give you a precise answer about your protractor.

In the mindtime you have to know that the Stevenson geometry alignment is the worst one of the 3 you mentioned because is the one that gives you the higher distortions/errors all over the LP recorded area but the last few indide mm. and I'm sure that other 

You can read it and see it through the link I posted and gave to you. I hope this time you really read it, is very important to understand the why's on this critical alignment issue.

http://www.vinylengine.com/tonearm_alignment_calculator_pro.php?arm1=Arm+1&l1=ps&a1lv=207&am... 


Regards and enjoy the music,
R.