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Review of the SMARTractor and SMARTstylus

I mounted an AudioTechnica VM95ML on the Sota for it's new owner using these tools for the first time.

The Acoustical Systems SMARTractor: On taking the unit out of it's box you immediately get the feeling you are dealing with a fine precision instrument. Construction quality is through the roof. It is child's play to set it up. The only kink I ran into. It was very difficult to push the locator pin (points to the vertical axis of the horizontal bearing) through the beam. I had to tap it with a small hammer. The grub screw was backed way out. The nylon plunger used to prevent marring the stainless steel was a very tight fit. 
You set the alignment by removing the pillar's locating screw then twist the pillar lining the index mark with the line labeled  with the alignment you want. I chose Lofgren B. You the place it on the platter which you should lock in place, line up the locator pin with the horizontal bearing and lock the beam in place. The Syrinx made this easy as it has a perfect dimple right over the horizontal axis. Next you place the magnifier in it's bracket and line it up with the Lofgren B grid. The grid lines are super fine and close together. They literally light up on the mirrored surface. Super easy to see.
You line up the cross hair with the targeting grid on the mirror. This puts your sight line right down the cantilever and boy does it work! The magnifier makes it darn easy for old eyes to line things up perfectly. 

Now for the SMARTstylus. This is just a piece of plexy with four sets of grid lines, vertical, horizontal and SRA, and VTA. It comes with it's own hand held magnifier. It looks well made. It is also close to worthless with an offset arm that has a permanent finger lift. Both the offset and the finger lift keep you from getting it close enough and angled correctly to the cantilever. I will try it again with the Schroder which does not have a finger lift. 

In short, the SMARTractor is a brilliant, well thought out devise manufactured to the highest standard. It is handily the most accurate, easiest to use cartridge alignment tool I have ever used. Is it worth $700? I have to say that if you love vinyl and want to be sure your cartridge is dead on, Yes absolutely. On the other hand at this time I have to say that the SMARTstylus is a waste of money. The VM95ML? Darn! It punches way above it's price point. It is handily the best sounding under $200 cartridge I have ever used. It is neutral, tracks well and is very quiet. It is as quiet as my $2000 Charisma. If you are after a MM cartridge in this price range you can not go wrong. You can be perfectly comfortable buying it blind.  

Hope this helps people,
Mike

128x128mijostyn
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
The question I have about this is that if you don’t have an arm with a perfect dimple to set the arm to pivot distance, can you ever really achieve maximum accuracy just eyeballing the pivot?

Good question. I've got an even better one: does it really even matter?  

Pivoted arms trace an arc that is never in alignment anyway, other than at the 2 null points. All the rest of the time tracking is off- and by a lot more than whatever error there may be from getting the overhang off by a millimeter or whatever.  

Nobody ever complains about hearing this. Only linear tracker people even seem to care about it- and even they never talk about having heard it on pivoted arms in the first place. So this cannot be much of a thing to worry about. 

My experience has always been that the two most sensitive and therefore critical things to get right are VTA and VTF. Both of which can only be initially set somewhere in the ballpark. Both of which can only be perfected by ear. Both of which do make a big difference. Especially VTA. Which, again, cannot be set by any tool, but only by ear.   

So what exactly is the point of spending money on fancy alignment jigs?

lewm
13,116 posts
 
MC, If you make an error locating the pivot point while setting P2S distance, it is quite possible to end up with only one null point on the playing surface of a typical LP, or none at all.  Plus it could exacerbate tracking angle errors that occur at every other point on the LP surface.  If we care about tracking angle error, which is the whole point of set-up, that would not be good.  You make a practice of pooh-pooing anal behaviors of audiophiles, which is sometimes amusing but not always a valid criticism of "our" behavior.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
MC, If you make an error locating the pivot point while setting P2S distance

Right. Except we were talking overhang, which is different. But covered anyway by specifically saying, "overhang off by a millimeter or whatever."

Clearly I’m talking overhang, not P2S. Equally clearly I’m talking about errors on the order of a single millimeter.

People who are truly concerned with tracking error, why are they even using a pivoted arm in the first place? Its a provocative question. Intended to provoke thought. Ultimately, who even cares if the tracking is so far off its only null at one point instead of two? Like I said, in the entire history of audiophiles no one ever said, "Gee it sounded really good there for a second, but now its all messed up. Wait! Now its great again and... its gone!" The two seconds where it sounds great being the two null points. Never happened. Not even once. Ever!

You make a practice of pooh-pooing anal behaviors of audiophiles, which is sometimes amusing but not always a valid criticism of "our" behavior.

So yeah, it is kinda funny, now that you mention it, spending $700 to mount a $200 cartridge, all to be sure you eliminated something that can’t ever be eliminated- and which no one ever hears anyway!

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 posts
 
@millercarbon, You surprise me! King of the cable elevators does not care about tracking error? What about azimuth? Not important?
I set up someone else's $170 cartridge with my $700 alignment jig. I would think that a noble thing to do, no? As for SRA, that is best set up with a USB microscope at 92 degrees which with the new styli like the Gyger S, The replicant 100 and Soundsmith's OCL is very easy to see. 
You are entitled to mess around with your ears. I will mess around with my tools thank you.
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cleeds
5,960 posts
 
millercarbon
My experience has always been that the two most sensitive and therefore critical things to get right are VTA and VTF ... Both of which do make a big difference. Especially VTA. Which, again, cannot be set by any tool, but only by ear.  
That depends. If your goal is to align the cartridge for minimum distortion, you can do that very precisely with a test record and an oscilloscope. If your goal is to set the cartridge for your preferred level of distortion then, yes, you can really only do that by ear.
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