Decided to try a SPU cartridge

What’s seems strange about the Rigid Floats is that they don’t give the tonearm mass which would allow cartridge+tonearm compatibility calculations. Rather, folks seem to be are using lighter to heavy cartridges.

Before I went down this SPU route, I was planning to purchase 2 tonearms. Originally my top choice was the 4point, then the next was a Schroeder CB or a Reed 3P. After reading about the different but excellent results the Rigid Float will be my second tonearm.

For a Ortofon SPU G type cartridge, I wonder if using the 4point or the Rigid Float are better choices than the other ~3k SPU tonearms I listed previously.

I favor the longer ~12 inch tonearms for their potentially superior sonics , not so much their higher price tags

All - thanks for your help and advice

@kennyc 

I didn't think you can use an SPU G type with a 4point as the headshell fixing is not compatible.

Should you baulk at the rigid float a Schröder CB would be an excellent choice for an SPU N series, just make sure you order one with enough mass, somewhere around 20g or more with the brass mounting plate and order any fine adjustment options available.

I’m also running a Royal N but on a Schröder Reference and my expectations of a £1000 cartridge were far exceeded, once I’d got the setup tuned in. I bought the SPU as a stop gap and out of curiosity while I got my Transfiguration Proteus repaired but I haven’t been missing the Proteus and now it’s back, with a fresh stylus and suspension I’m in no hurry to fit it.

@yeti42 

I am certainly loving my Royal N, for me it just plays music and I am not missing any of the so called hifi elements.

In the UK I know people are changing there Kondo IOMs etc for the Royal N. It is a cartridge that is being championed by the designer and maker of Living Voice speakers, he has told me that it is without doubt his favourite cartridge.

cleeds, I finally found your definition of HTA, which you posted before my post about the difference if any between HTA and Zenith.  Your definition of HTA:

"Your cartridge is in perfect alignment on the horizontal plane when a line drawn between the two contact facets form a straight line pointing at the center of the record."

For a cartridge where the stylus is perfectly cut and mounted on its cantilever and the cantilever is perfectly straight (problems mentioned by Dover) and one of the conventional alignment algorithms is perfectly observed, then the condition you describe occurs twice over the course of playing an LP, at each of the two null points, where Tracking Angle Error = 0.  OK. That makes perfect sense. Now what is our definition of Zenith?  If Zenith = HTA, then it must refer to the orientation of the stylus tip in the groove.  That is not a conventional geometric definition of Zenith. Nor is it an aeronautical definition. (I consulted a close friend who is a pilot.)  That's OK as long as we know what we mean.