Cartridge Opinions - Sorry
tyray164 posts:23pm "And I also think that Azimuth can only be adjusted on the headshell itself and not the tonearm, whether the headshell is removable or nonremovable. Thanks R!" my Blackbird has built in micrometer to adjust VTA, easy, precise, wonderful, but, the cartridge is fixed directly to the long carbon arm. Azimuth adjustment by rotating the carbon tube a speck in it’s snug rear housing, tighten with set screw. The SOB’s put the set screw on the bottom, what misery to get it right, the worst design feature. As azimuth is critically important, many a curse was issued, I should learn Russian to curse in their language. |
@chakster, 'And I assume we know how to align and adjust a cartridge/tonearm.' I'm sure we all do but some are easier than others. The times I used to wish my decks had a detachable headshell like my first Rega 3 did. Of course they didn't because we were told detachable was very bad. But was it really? With the Rega there wasn't much need to manoeuvre. The square bodied Nagoaka cart was fairly straightforward to align and the mirror check revealed no issues either. I remember having a couple of protractors for alignment and some were easier to use than others. I knew that with a 2 point protractor that the inner alignment point was critical to get right because of potential end of side tracking issues. The Ittok on the Linn was fairly easy to adjust for height but it was not so easy to try out other arms on the LP12 because of the need for a specifically cut armboard. Besides we were regularly told that the Ittok was the best arm in the world (until the Ekos) so there was little incentive to bother. I never found arm height to make difference so I kept to the recommended advice of keeping the arm parallel to the top-plate/platter. It's important to get setup right but don't get too obsessive. There will always be the odd opera torture track that will give most arm/cart combos hiccups. Perhaps it's time some brave soul out there tried out a multi cartridge tracking group test. Unsurprisingly the hi-fi press never bothered as the findings may have not been to their or their readers liking. I do remember certain Shure cartridges being renowned for their tracking abilities. Perhaps it might be worth finding out what carts classical stations such as BBC Radio 3 used to employ in the days before they switched to digital. Tracking and record care would have been vital to them as they then had one of the most impressive vinyl libraries in the world. |
@tyray I fail to see the relevance of the question in your last post? The cutting tool that is mounted on the end of the arm on a cutting lathe at the time of the lacquer mastering is not a cartridge/stylus. But if you are asking if that cutter is more important than the arm to which it is attached to, i would say again.. no. If the arm that is directing the cutter is at all problematic, there goes the accuracy of the cut. |
