How best to eliminate LP warps

@mijostyn

"you can not adjust azimuth by ear. You adjust it by site which is easy to do."

Don’t agree. The Koetsu sits so low that even an approximate setting by sight is very difficult to impossible. In any case, sight is approximate to perhaps one degree, unless you have a microscope on a stand with crosshairs, which is registered precisely to the plane of the platter. Otherwise you are at the mercy of too many other variables, such as the construction of the tonearm wand - which is an absolute dealbreaker for me, as my wands are artisanal.

Speaking of USB microscopes, which ones do you find best? I looked a few years ago, and couldn’t find anything useful at less than thousands. A USB microscope would be useful to get me into the ballpark, and keep me there. A real timesaver.

Last, it is quite possible to adjust by ear. I use two tests: choral music in close harmony (Harmonia Mundi has lots of these; looking for ’sweetness’), and folk songs in dialect (looking for clarity of diction). But that’s harder to do without azimuth-on-the-fly.

If it's playable warp, don't eliminate it. If it's not playable warp, you can take risk of ironing it through cloth

Don’t buy LPs…get snap crackle and pop cereal instead. Lol

Cheersc

@terry9, Yes, the Koetsu is a PITA. You do it by placing the tonearm down on a mirror with good light from both sides and your eye or a USB camera directly in front. This technique quadruples your accuracy. The stylus and it's reflection form an hourglass. You simply adjust azimuth until the hourglass stands up perfectly straight. It hardly takes any practice once you get the set up down.

This insistence on using hearing to make accurate adjustments on turntables is bordering on the absurd. Human hearing is in no way shape or form calibrated. It is like trying to use a screwdriver to remove a bolt. Wrong tool for the job. You do yourself, your stylus and your records a gross disservice by doing it that way. I do not mean to be harsh but it is important for everyone to understand this. If you insist your hearing is sufficient for the job than your ego is taller than the rest of you. You will not really hear a difference until your stylus is way out of line. 

@terry9, I for got to answer your question on USB microscopes! Sorry about that.

There are many hobbyist scopes out the $50 to $100 price range that are good enough for azimuth and VTA adjustment but not stylus wear. The real problem is positioning the scope so that it's aim is right and it has to be absolutely still or you will get sick watching the image. It takes a bit of creativity to get the job done. For an all around brilliant scope that you can use for stylus wear and has a staging system specifically for turntables the WallyScope is the one and only scope for the job and at last count it was $1250.00 which makes it a luxury item for most people.  

For $100 and some velcro you can get the job done for azimuth and VTA. It is also a lot of fun and USB microscopes can be very handy for a variety of jobs.