Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

@lewm the issue is there is not a tapered aluminum cantilever available to replace a damaged OEM one. Not through any cartridge builder that I am aware of. I wondered if the one fitted to an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze could be a possibility, but you cannot source one. 

When this first occurred I didn't touch an album for 4 or 5 months. I was really quite upset with myself. Only after I was able to contact @nandric and buy his MC2000 was all right in the world again. Then I had a reason to consider a repair of the first cartridge. This way I had an OEM version to appreciate, and still have an alternative to use for casual listening. Now if I could have found a suitable replacement I would use it in a heartbeat. But I do not know of one. 

@mijostyn     You mention the unnecessary obsession with VTA.  I agree with you.  You guess the error from playing a 130gm LP on a setting for 200gm at 'a few minutes maybe'.  I have done the calculation, assuming a 9 inch arm and a 1mm thickness difference (I haven't measured, but it's no more than that).  The answer is 1.8 minutes, so even less than your guess.  That cannot be heard.

My Simon Yorke Aeroarm has a dial for adjusting arm height on the fly.  There is a big stiff round knob.  I could measure the angular turn for say 0.1mm of change, mark a reference point adjacent to the knob, and set absolutely for each disc, having measured the thickness in the playing area with a caliper (carefully!) and written that dimension on the inner sleeve.

But I don't.  If Michael Fremer still used Simon Yorke equipment he would surely do it, and have a very nice record player as well.

@neonknight Thanks for mentioning the Dynavector DV505. That seems like it could be the perfect solution for my situation in that it’s a flush-mount and doesn’t require a massive hole to be drilled in my plinth. I’ve ordered one. It’s a bit of a fiddly arm, but the Rigid Float is just as fiddly if not moreso. From my limited use, there always seems to be a feeling of there being some slop, e.g. if I pull the cartridge out and put it back in, I feel like the azimuth shifts slightly.The VTA adjustment is kind of a pain, too.

I’m not sure how the unique Dynavector design will track 78s--hopefully a slightly heavier headshell will have enough effective mass to track my lower-compliance cantilevers with higher tracking forces properly without resonances. Overall it seems a lot more scientifically-grounded than the Rigid Float.

Neon, I would check with Expert Stylus in the UK. They seem to source Ortofon related parts , or suitable replacements. I gather you think the OEM cantilever is not salvageable.

@intactaudio , Dave, JR is a pen pal. There is a new design for the stage of the WallyScope. I am in part responsible for the design change. I have the exact same microscope JR uses except it is on a laboratory grade stage which makes it easier to adjust. To look at zenith you need to put reference marks on the cartridge or whatever the cartridge is sitting on then you snap lines across the reference marks then on the long axis of the stylus. The program then automatically calculates the angle. In all my cartridges that is Zero degrees +- a few minutes. 

I am not your usual casual audiophile. I was in the business for a decade and I am a technocrat and tool collector. If it can be done I can usually do it, in analog fashion anyway. I do not have any CNC equipment because I do not make production runs. All my furnisher are one offs. I have way more capability than JR ever dreamed of.  I will put a picture of the SteinScope on my system page so you can see if you can figure out how I made it. 

@clearthinker , Thanx for doing the calculation. I'm lazy. IMHO VTA towers are a complete waste of money. A scale on the tonearm's barrel is a very useful touch. It is always nice to have repeatable measurements. The real riot is that people will say up is brighter down is duller (I may have that reversed). As the stylus tilts off the axis of the cutter head in either direction the contact line can no longer fit into the smallest modulations, this high frequency ones. Moving the tonearm up or down creates a mechanical low pass filter. You loose the high frequencies in either direction. This is a great example of people letting their brains fool them.