Cartridge alignment, WallyTractor, SmartTractor, oscilloscope and Analogmaigk.

The trick to dynamic SRA is to listen. Only way.

A rack that massive, the mass itself is so much inertia it will not move very fast even if the floor does. Mine is about that massive and I have seen it. Before when it was on cones I could stomp on the floor and the rack would move fast, sometimes enough to skip. Now the whole rack on Pods will sway so slowy, it is like 1Hz, so slow that even if large amplitude (like 1-2cm) records play just fine. My Origin Live Enterprise arm has a side bias weight that dangles on fishing line. It is spooky to see the rack swaying back and forth while the side bias weight hangs straight down not swinging at all because the motion is so smooth and slow.

I think that even with a good scope it is a lot of trouble to measure SRA.  Dynamic SRA measurement is, however, only a little bit more difficult--it just requires the record to be spinning (spun by hand, any speed) when the image is captured.  The surface must be a record, not something else like a CD, so, one must take a sacrificial disk and shave off the edge bead.  Personally, I don't bother with SRA measurement--I set the arm close to parallel, then I listen when making small adjustments away from parallel.

The Wallytool service that is much more useful is zenith measurement. This is a subject that is not discussed much because few can make the measurement, even very expensive cartridges can measure poorly, and aside from small errors, there are no means to correct the manufacturing defect.  For all the effort one puts into aligning the cantilever to be pointing in the correct direction within one degree, it is a bit disheartening to know that the stylus surface cuts may be misaligned by ten degrees or more.  If I recall correctly, Wallytools has a means for correcting for errors up to three degrees, based on this analysis.

It is quite the wonder that analogue playback dounds so good with all of the technical shortcomings and compromises.

@millercarbon agreed there too :) The way we do it is to do the averaging mostly to always start from a repeatable and consistent place, then modify to what we like, and usually we have 2 settings one for thin records and one for thicker ones, but most of the time we leave it alone, but on some days with some records it is worth the effort.

@larryi indeed...but on the other hand, when you get it really close to right then it is worth the sweat, blood and $.

Another issue with dynamic SRA is that it yields different results from record to record so that too is an approximation. We have found that AnalogMagik does a consistent good job for SRA, their results come very close to dynamic SRA. AnalogMagik’s SRA is always very close to what I like, same with VTF. Not so much with azimuth.

One more week until I get back to the USA and start playing with the new toys.

I will have 2 rack-of-silence with 5 and 4 shelfs, a Pathos heritage, a PS20 and the Acoustic Signature Typhoon, a second REL s/510 and the pods and podiums, that @millercarbon recommended, to set up.

@lewm , +1

That said, I have both and use Wallys far more often for my 5 tonearms. Well, actually I have the UNI-Pro but same idea. If p2s is exact, which really ought to be a given, especially if you have the right tools and set it yourself, I find the Wally to be more precise. I like arc protractors because alignment can be checked anywhere along the arc rather than at a single point, a la Smart/UNI Pro; and Wallys are the best arc protractors I’ve found. The originals anyway; I’ve never tried the new ones.

But they’re both excellent, so like Lewm said, don’t overthink.

How many protractors do you need to setup your cartridges/tonearms and enjoy the music? For my 6 turntables and 11 tonearms all I need is one brand new Dr. Feickert NG protractor and nothing else!