Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

Dear @intactaudio : You don’t get it my point or I can’t explain it in the rigth wat but your charts goes exactly on what I listening during those yesterday tests: the overhang change/error produce a kind of distortion that’s detected when the alone " error " in the offset angle not only is lower but just can’t detect it in easy way. This is my issue.

In the other side, in this thread I posted that the angular error is only a part of the whole subject because a tonearm is a lot more than tha and I posted about that well damped VIV pivot bearing and its arm wand O rings and the like.

Change in overhang alone is truly sensible and audible, we can see that a tiny difference around only 0.4mm between Löfgren A and Löfgren B alignments that tracking distortion goes lower in the B alignment and both A and B alignments have the same offset angle.

Yes, even if we have the best tools to make the cartridge/tonearm set up the perfect set updoes not exist because LP groove after groove surface is not totally flat but full of waves and micro-waves where the stylus tip it’s looking different VTA almost at each groove. I posted several times about as I posted that changes in VTF/VTA/AZ and the like change the original set up, it’s the reality of the imperfection of analog as is the fact that even top cartridges comes with no perfectly centered stylus tip at the cantilever even sometimes comes with not centered cantilever.

Btw, here I don’t mentioned that lewm does not listen the high distortions developed by the VIV ( because " not golden ears " ) or that his system has not the resolution to do it but I posted the other way around and don’t diminish him or his system in anyway. I have respect for lewm, I know who he is.

Every one of us know about those " nice distortions " but no one but the VIV owners experienced a totally NEW kind of " nice distortions " ( lewm I posted that it’s need it to look at what sort of distortion as you said but with my words ) and almost all know that our ears are not the best " tool " to detect not only that kind of distortion but several others because during LP playback what we are listening and that we like it’s totally full of distortions.

No one here is discovering the " black thread ".

Still my question abou the stylus shape is On and with out answer from you .

R.

@lewm : " Until then, your complete conviction that you alone are possessed of the "truth" rings hollow to me. Is your close-minded attitude any better than the behavior of the AHEE that you so revile? "

You are who think that because here for what I posted tells you that I’m not a close-mind but the other way around. What you could think is only that what you think but not what is my attitude on the whole subject .

I don’t remember that in this thread you mentioned or accepted that are listening added unique kind of distortions by that high tonearm offset angle and : Are you saying I’m close-mind? .

Btw, I was writing my post when you already posted that link that I don't read yet.

@intactaudio 

Simple, I have a very powerful USB microscope and a computer program that allows me to snap lines and it automatically determines angles. I detail each and every cartridge I buy. If there is an error I correct for it, but frankly all my cartridges are in the 9 to 13 thousand dollar range and are beautifully made. If I ever got a cartridge that was that bad I would send it right back. 

@intactaudio 

By the way JR and I are pen pals. He modified the WallyScope due to a recommendation of mine. The head unit of my scope started out life as a WallyScope. 

@lewm 

TAE is bad, so isn't skating. The approach taken by the majority of pivoted tonearm designers is the right one. Regardless of how you think the Viv arm sounds it is the wrong approach. The ultimate tonearm would be a tangential straight line tracker but nobody has managed to do one correctly yet. The technology to do it correctly has just been developed.

Also, the author of that vinyl asylum paper is FOS. TAE affects all frequencies but primarily high frequencies the distortion is not harmonically related at all as the distortion varies continuously as does TAE. All frequencies have a horizontal component except those in perfect mono dead center. 

@intactaudio 

If you go to my system page. There is a picture of the front end with a bunch of records. To the left is my desk. On it you can see the microscope and the special light I use with it. Further over out of the picture is my workstation.

"TAE affects all frequencies but primarily high frequencies the distortion is not harmonically related at all as the distortion varies continuously as does TAE. All frequencies have a horizontal component except those in perfect mono dead center."

I can agree that most frequencies have both a horizontal and vertical component in the movement of the stylus. It is simple-minded perhaps to suggest that "low frequencies" are produced by horizontal motion, but beyond that, can you further explain the rest of your statement that I quote here?  Thanks.

Pursuant to your use of a USB microscope, do you correct for zenith error using it? Or do you find that all your cartridges are perfect corrected for zenith?  I don't trust myself to see a one or two degree error in zenith using my analog microscope, and indeed in most cases I don't see error, but the ZYX Universe I own has a very obvious error by the same method.  Therefore I assume it's at least 3 degrees or more.  I have not inspected the ART7 that Dave twisted to correct for zenith, because I don't want to mess up his adjustment; the cartridge now sounds so good.