Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

Was thinking the same thing, not so much in terms of that phrase "cantilever haze" (with which I am not familiar), but of the fact that cartridges with a very short cantilever might be less subject to the phenomenon of horizontal scrubbing. For what it's worth, my DV 17D3, with its very short cantilever, sounds particularly special (meaning especially improved) on the Viv tonearm. Just food for thought.

Well, I tried...drilled my hole and then I printed out the gauge from the VivLabs RF manual which is available online. Next I tried a Jubilee. But if this is going to work, it probably needs a conventional cartridge. So I played an album I know well with a Sussurro MkII mounted conventionally, then swapped it onto the underhung arm, set VTF and alignment with the Viv protractor and played it again. It didn't sound as good! Much less bass (in each case I had the arm set to be horizontal when the stylus is on the record). Same VTF, same associated equipment, same arms except for the alignment. Anti-skate set to zero for the underhung arm. I'm surprised, but maybe I did something wrong somewhere, the cartridge looks straight and aligned with the length of the tonearm, but maybe I was just a little off with my drill? I'll play some more, but for now I've put the Sussurro back where it came from. More experimentation required!

This is using the tonearm where the pivot bearings are offset to match headshell offset?  Or if not, what tonearm? I'd be willing to lend you my RS Labs RS-A1, if you're interested.

Yes, the bearings are aligned with an offset headshell, and all I have done is mounted the cartridge in the headshell to nullify the offset, and placed the arm such that the stylus aligns with the ViVLabs protractor.

Thanks for the offer, but if I can't make this set-up sound good I'll just go back to what I normally use (and which, TBH, I am content with).

Where did you get the Viv protractor? I wonder whether they’re all the same or different for different lengths.