Phono Stage upgrade to complement Dohmann Helix One Mk 2

Thanks for sharing! Was the Dohmann HQ in Australia, or Bulgaria (as I just read a Fremer article about Dohmann, Schroder, and another sound equipment manufacturer joining together to form a conglomerate in Bulgaria.)

The outskirts of Melbourne.

Yes, the alignment was tricky the first time, but I made all my mistakes on the Rega P8. I’ve only used the UNIDIN alignment on the SmarTractor, since I listen to entirely acoustic/classical/jazz music. Do you have any idea how the Baerwald or Loefgren alignment would affect the sound, if at all?

Well, I opined that IMO the spindle distance and overhang are about the least important things to get right, but the Azimuth, rake and Zenith are hard… and people get over anal to the Nth degree on the easy stuff and can miss the important stuff… and he seemed to concur.
(We talked at length and I’ll be getting a WAM Zenith disc when the TT rebuild is complete.)

Anyhow… for instance with the CB-9, I plug in the 222mm spindle difference I get baerwald having the Schroder recommended overhang.
I am visually within 0.2mm of 222.

The I go into the calculator and use Loefgren and get a number a couple of mm different.
On a lark put in a spindle distance a mm error, and got an overhang a bit different. 1mm error in spindle distance is heaps.

So we can get anal on that to save a small fraction of a degree of error and then can miss say a cartridge Zenith error of a handful of degrees.
And SRA and Azimuth are also difficult, but less so for Azimuth.

This is worth a watch IMO:

My opinion is that I would not stress at all about it, but Baerwald is a longer effective arm, and I believe should be better overall… to an anal fraction of a degree… but I have not done the maths and graphs yet.

How does the TT sound?
I missed which arm and cart you put on it?

And @drbond I am a bit envious… but my old table is a thing of joy.

@sksos , my mistake. You really need to take a look at the Channel D Seta L 20. It is the quietest phono stage made, is battery powered, will do both voltage and current modes ( your MSL will really sing) and has a flat output just in case you want to try digital RIAA correction and recording your friend's rare records.
@drbond , I also use a SmarTracter. The alignment to use is Lofgren B. It has the lowest distortion across the record accept at the very inner groove area. Modern engineers stay away from that area and even in the old days most records were not cut that far in.

Aligning a cartridge on the Sota can be a bouncy situation, I can't imagine doing it on the Dohmann which is even more sensitive and the entire plinth is suspended whereas with the Sota the suspended sub chassis is internal. Is there a way to lock out the suspension on the Dohmann?

@mijostyn I've been using the SmarTracter for the last 18 months (prior I used the  feickert protractor). As you know the SmarTracter has 5 different setting you can use to align a cartridge. When I first received it I went back and forth listening to all 5 settings and came away with Lofgren B as the best sounding "to my ears". It's nice to know I picked the one with the lowest distortion.  😎

Dear @mijostyn  : For years I used the B alignment and today I use the A alignment.

In numbers the B alignment gives you 0.04% on average RMS distortion lower than the A alignment but in the other side both kind of alignments are almost the same and its difference is that the B one overhang is 0.46 mm longer than the A alignment.

My common sense says that you or me in reality can't be absolute sure which is the alignment we are using or maybe we are in between or near A or near B.

In anyway the distortion numbers are so close and the change groove after groove is no higher than 0.001% that not even a bat can discern about.

Now, make an unbiased test with same tonearm, same cartridge and same everything: unmount thecartridge and then mount it as if will be the first time and make that excersice at least twice and you can be sure that both tests exist tiny very tiny differences.

Btw, unidin is not a standard alignment and ceratinly has not new equations alignmwent but only a manipulation of Löfgren parameters. Any one can has its own alignment if knows how manipulate those parameters. VPI tonearms have its own alignment. Through Analog Planet site M.Fremer with the help of his mentor ( Wally that pass away. ) made the comparison between all the standard alignments and the unidin one looking for the distortion levels where was clear that Löfgren was better.  Unidin is only marketing and nothing more than that. As I said number manipulation and it's really easy to know that manipulation.

For me always is better to go with the Standard Löfgren A/B.

R.

@holmz

Thanks for sharing your experience with Dohmann, and the details about cartridges that you discussed together! I’ll have to look into that WAM zenith disc, but I’ve been using the AnalogMagik software with decent results, and there is one aspect of that software, while not perfect, I’ve read can be used to help with zenith: apparently somehow the VTA measurement may actually do a better job at measuring zenith. The azimuth adjustment with the AnalogMagik software seems to do a good job, getting the crosstalk to match between channels, but there’s no way to meaure that SRA, so I’ll have to watch that video one weekend, and see if it’s worth it. Presently, I just use electonic level in my phone camera, and use that to verify that the tonearm is level (0 degrees) when playing.

I guess I should try the Baerwald alignment now that I’ve been listening to the UNIDIN for a few months. . .

I think that the turntable sounds phenomenal! One aspect that I think stands out is the balance of the presentation: the music is just balanced, so that the instruments are distinct, clear, and yet communicative and musical. There isn’t one range that overwhelms another.

I have two Schroder CB 11 tonearms installed, and I’ve used four cartridges thus far: the Lyra Atlas, Koetsu Urushi Black, My Sonic Lab Ultimate Platinum, and Lyra Etna Lambda SL. Presently, the latter two are installed.

If you’re ever visiting central Florida and want to listen, send me a message.

@mijostyn @sksos

Well, I’ll have to try the Loefgren B then!

Yes, there is a little post that you can lift to support the turntable while adjusting things. Once, I forgot to lower it after an adjustment, and left the post up, and the interference that I noted was remarkable, so that minus K really works!

@rauliruegas 

Thanks for sharing your experience with the alignments!