"Straight" talk

Stringreen, Fact is, if one is going to be truly anal about maximizing the listening experience for each and every LP, then one would be constantly fiddling with tonearm parameters.  Maybe I should be embarrassed to admit it, but when I am in a listening session, I want only to get lost in the music.  I do take pains to set up, when I first mount a cartridge in a tonearm, but after that I rarely change settings except perhaps to fiddle with VTF once in a while, by a few tenths of a gram up or down.

I will never forget the first time I heard a Triplanar that was set up for azimuth.  At that point in time (must have been the 1980s), no one was talking about "azimuth" at all.  There were nearly no tonearms or even headshells that permitted azimuth adjustment. Herb Papier himself, the inventor and for many years the maker of all Triplanars, was doing the demonstration.  It was striking how the sound stage, imaging, whatever you want to call it, "locked in" (to use your words, which are very apt), when Herb set the azimuth correctly.  At that moment, I knew that I had to have a Triplanar, but I had to wait several more years until I could afford it. I guess I have become lazy.  However, I still have the Triplanar, a Reed, and several headshells that permit azimuth adjustment.

Lewn....I wrote what I wrote to say that the adjustment is not just an act to get it done, but a very important one for which care should be given.  Too many on these pages seem to go through the motions with alacrity rather than care.  The Fozgometer and its accompanying test record   are very valuable for precision results.

@clearthink wrote.

" Example: when we change VTA/SRA the AZ changes too "

It is obviously apparent from this claim that Raul is not well informed about the intricacies and standards involved with properly installing and aligning a phono cartridge/tonearm assembly as part of a Music Reproduction System or there would be no way Raul would make this claim.

You observation is ONLY correct if you are talking about linear tonearms or tonearm without an offset.  Basic geometry tells you that cartridge azimuth will change with a change in pivot height due to the fact the cartridge stylus is not in a direct line with the pivot i.e. offset tonearm/headshell. 

If you need to visualize the effect, assume that the headshell offset is 90 degrees.

Hey Testpilot thanks for the 90% example. Takes all the subjective out of the equation. Here is one example of black and white which the debate is over. Now will the poster get it ???

Stringreen, I am basically agreeing with you about the value of correcting azimuth.  On the subject of the Foz and its wonderfulness, I am not qualified, because I do not own one, and I do not fully understand how it works. I do know however, that there have been some complaints about it.  One possible problem I recall was a claim that it becomes inaccurate if there is even slight decay of the voltage coming from the battery.  That didn't quite make sense to me (because integrated circuits such as the ones that must be used in the Foz will generally work fine so long as the power voltage is approximately Ok), but that's what more than one person was claiming.