HiFi News Test Record Azimuth

If you are going to adjust azimuth "visually" (Chakster), then you really ought not to have a tonearm with azimuth adjustment capability, because in most tonearms, the default position of the headshell will already give you 90 degrees of azimuth, assuming that is the goal Chak has in mind. After decades of fiddling with azimuth and in fact being motivated to buy my triplanar tonearm for the very fact that it permits easy azimuth adjustment, I have come down on the nihilist point of view put forth by MC. Incorrect azimuth adjustment, in my opinion, can do more damage to the stylus, to the LP, and to the SQ, than can just going with 90 degrees. Yes, in some cases with some cartridges, that will be not the perfect solution, and in those cases perhaps also damage can be done. But I decided in the past few years, I can live with that. I also own a Reed tonearm with azimuth adjustment, and I own a Signet Cartridge Analyzer which permits adjusting azimuth electrically, using a Shure test LP which I own. I don’t use them any longer (the Signet Analyzer and the test LP; of course I do use the Reed tonearm with azimuth set to 90 degrees [top of headshell parallel to LP surface]).

I get @millercarbon because from the outside to the inside - particularly with a weight/screw-down there is a curve/dish to the record. That said the hi Fi news adjustment is quite useful. Dr Feickhert at a talk informed the audience that mc’s almost always have a sideways tension on the cantilever by their nature/design. Shame there is no cheap plug in to check - both fozgometer and feickhert software aren’t cheap😢

I recently set up azimuth on a new cartridge with a VTA/Azimuth block - output was unbalanced. Then used a Fozgometer and got equal output but no magic. Then an o-scope and found 75/150 mv crosstalk. Adjusted it to 65/80 mv. Slightly unbalanced output but Glorious sound. Lesson?  Measure the right thing and azimuth matters a lot.

If you are going to adjust azimuth "visually" (Chakster), then you really ought not to have a tonearm with azimuth adjustment capability, because in most tonearms, the default position of the headshell will already give you 90 degrees of azimuth... 

-On many tonearms without azimuth adjustment detachable headshell can be rotated a a bit in tonearm's bayonet. Correction always needed. 

-There are also headshells with azimuth adjustment. 

-There are also tonearms like Reed 3p with azimuth on the fly. 

But I adjust visually anyway (looking at the cartridge body and cantilever), I have the same Hi-Fi News Test LP.

  

Wlutke, just want to make the point that azimuth adjustment is not done to correct channel imbalance; it’s done to minimize crosstalk. Adjusting azimuth does have a small effect on balance but the resulting angle required to produce a small change in balance will be ridiculously to one side or the other of 90 degrees, thus endangering the stylus and the LP if used that way for any length of time, and it will be way off the angle for optimal crosstalk.