What is you tonearm’s Maximum Distortion?


I’ve been playing around with different cartridge mounting, as a Grace arm the plinth of my Lenco cannot be mounted at the recommended pivot-to-spindle distance of 222mm (closest it can get is 225mm).


My best figures in theory seem to be:
Max. Tracking Error: 3.51 degrees
Max. Distortion: 1.21 %
Average RMS Distortion: 0.73 %

This is with: P-t-s 225mm; overhang 11mm; offset angle 19 degrees.

What are your figures for your setup?

fusian

Does anyone have their tonearms’ figures, re: max. distortion % and max. error degrees?

Both you and Raul referenced the same algorithm on Vinyl Engine.  I see where it has a readout for distortion once you plug in the known values for any particular tonearm, but I have no idea how it comes up with distortion %, mathematically.  I guess it uses formulae first promulgated by the gods of alignment, Lofgren and Baerwald. Anyway, sorry I cannot respond to your actual question. My feeling is that distortion has to be measured, not predicted based on angular errors,

Good point, lewm. I will reword my question:

Does anyone have the theoretical figures for your tonearms’ maximum distortion % and maximum tracking error degrees, based on the vinylengine Overhang Shift Calculator?

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 @ lewm 10+, Trying to calculate distortion this way is fruitless and hopelessly inaccurate. If anything you are interested in total distortion which is additive based of a host of factors. If you really want to know what is going on you have to measure. The same holds true for resonance frequency. The equation for resonance frequency relies on all reported values being accurate. Life does not work that way. It is easy to measure the resonance frequency and know exactly what is going on. Distortion, IM and Harmonic, is a bit more complicated and requires certain equipment which most of us do not have. 

I use lofgren B. It results in less distortion over most of the record except at the very inner grooves which most engineers avoid now a days. The SmarTractor gives you all the alignments and allows you to adjust overhang and offset to achieve reasonable results in most cases.