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Great Experience with Feickert Protractor

After years of using other setup tools, I finally broke down and bought the Dr. Feickert Protractor.  I couldn't be happier. 

I highly recommend this unit for great design, construction, ease of use, and precision of setup.  I'm at the point in this hobby where I buy stuff and am not afraid to find that something makes no difference or the difference it makes is not to my liking.  The Feickert did not change the overall sonic character of my table/cart.  What it clearly did do was make imaging and soundstage more apparent (stand out) and it sounds like more information is coming through because I can hear more decay and faint sounds than before. 

If anyone is within driving distance of Chicagoland, I'd be happy to lend it out so others could benefit.  

Before the Feickert I was using Mobile Fidelity's Geo Disc and I had to sight the pivot point with an alignment bar on the Geo Disc.  I got pretty close (assuming the Feickert is more accurate), as I was within 2mm.  I'll rest assured knowing that I'm running things closer to perfect for sound quality and wear. 
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luisma31
516 posts
 
Old thread, I need a tool to align different cartridges on different tonearms. From my searches apparently the Feickert protractor is very good specifically with P2S distances, not so good with cart alignment, the Smartractor although more expensive allows you to adjust long tonearms and the cartridge with better precision, but it lacks Stevenson's alignment which most japanese tonearms (the ones I will be using) "required",  I said required because I understand you could perfectly use Lofgren to align these tonearms with average best outer and inner alignment.I would love to hear your opinions on protractors so I can make a good decision. I know Lew uses Uni (same as Smartractor), chakster uses Feickert, I think Raul is all about Lofgren even for the japanese tonearms, apologies if I'm mistakenThank you
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cleeds
5,720 posts
 
The WallyTractor is tough to beat.
lewm
12,573 posts
 
Luis, I don’t know what you mean when you say the Feickert is “not so good“ for cartridge alignment. Can you elaborate? Because unless you are very anal about the process, I find the Feickert to be excellent on all counts. And because I am admittedly lazy, I increasingly use the Feickert instead of the Uni tractor, even though I realize the Uni tractor is capable of even greater accuracy and perfection. In addition to being lazy, I am also an agnostic when it comes to worshiping perfection in the art of cartridge alignment. I find that with magnification and strong lighting, I can very often visualize the cantilever when using the Feickert, and therefore can account for cantilevers that deviate from perfection in alignment. I also tend to avoid cartridges that are way out of line in that respect. Perhaps that is what you meant when you said the Feickert was not so good.
luisma31
516 posts
 
You're correct I meant the cantilever,
More replying in a few
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
... the Feickert protractor is very good specifically with P2S distances, not so good with cart alignment, the Smartractor although more expensive allows you to adjust long tonearms and the cartridge with better precision

I have aligned "12 inch tonearm with Dr. Feickert, absolutely no problem with that. 

Some people are referring to an old version of Dr. Feickert, but it was upgraded with the new version many years ago, it's precision protractor. 

If you vision is not good it's the only "problem" with Dr. Feickert protractor.   

I often see people overestimate the importance of alignment when they want to align their cartridge with micron accuracy that your ears can't detect anyway! 






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