Correct alignment for Fidelity Research 64fx/SPU?


Hello,

I've recently paired SPU Spirit with FR64fx (& additional counterweight).

FR64fx is mounted at 230mm pivot to spindle distance on my Garrard 301.

I currently experience a light distortion and mistracking. As I tried the SPU before on almost ad hoc mounted 3012 and that sounded technically correct (though not as convincing as with FR64fx in terms of emotional performance), I'm pretty convinced I will need to realign the tonearm.

I would appreciate any info related to an experience of 64/SPU users here, which would differ from a usual 230m PTS alignment. Also, I keep on reading that Stevenson alignment would be preferred, is there any explanation why so?

Basically I need to make a good decision as I have no armboard - whatever decision I make I will need to get a new top board with a new hole for a new alignment.

Many thanks!
anubisgrau
@rauliruegas the box of my AC-4400 says 'double points oil damped' tonearm. So not unipivot, contrary to the AC-3000/4000. In any case it doesn't 'wobble' like unipivots do.

@chakster I have no personal experience with Ikeda 345, so can't answer your question. 

@edgewear : Yes I know is a double point but it's not a fixed bearing as FR or Technics or other true fixed tonearm designs. A fixed tonearm pivot design is a lot more stable than a single or dual pivot designs.

R.
Dear @lewm  : I like well damped tonearms with fixed bearing pivot and with removable headshell.

Vintage Technics and Lustre are inside those characteristics along AT design. All internally re-wired.

From some time now I'm using my own designed and builded tonearm and my favorite with any mounted cartridge.

From today and even that some have non removable headshell: Triplanar, Audio Note, Davinci, Durand ( fixed pivot design. ), Kuzma 4 point, SME, Thales, Reed, Townshend. I have no experiences with the fixed VPI but I can think is a good design.

Now, my take is that for any audiophile the favorite tonearm is that that gives the best quality performance levels match with the cartridge he own, at the end these couple is whom has the " last word " about.


Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
@lewm  : How can I forgot this one?, the MS MAX 282 that's one of the best ever tonearm design.
R.

This may be only tangentially related, but where damping is most advantageous, and is of most potential benefit, is at the pickup/cartridge/headshell end of the tonearm. In the late-60’s/early-70’s, turntable design was investigated in depth at the Cransfield Institute of Technology in England (perhaps England’s equivalent of MIT. Am I alone in considering England the motherload of all things LP related? And not because my bloodline is over 50% English/Irish ;-), where the concept of a trough of silicon damping fluid into which is inserted a "paddle" (a hollow aluminum tube), the upper end of which is attached to the arm’s headshell, was proposed. More detailed information about that research is readily available to those interested enough to search for it.

Max Townshend, a brilliant mechanical and electronic engineer, licensed the rights to the idea, and designed a turntable incorporating (amongst other concepts) the front-end damping developed at Cransfield, which works with all pivoted arms: The Townshend Audio Rock Turntable. The Rock has been available in seven different incarnations (currently out-of-production), and is a turntable rarely seen for sale second-hand. I bought mine (a Rock Elite Mk.2) almost thirty years ago, and though modestly priced (and modest in appearance), it is my most prized hi-fi component. I own a gun, but it is my Rock which would need to be pried from my cold, head hands.