Feel Silly Asking This Question Alignment Parameters
I feel silly asking this question, but here it goes. Most of the arms I have owned over the years have came with proprietary protractors, and certain ones like the SME are really just overhang gauges. For other ones I have bought custom generated arc protractors for the specific arm. I will probably do so again with this Origin Live arm. However in the mean time i decided to set up using their provided protractor.
When I went to install a cartridge on the table, I found I was not wild about using their protractor, so I decided to generate a Conrad H arc protractor till I made an order for an Accutrak one. What I found odd is that Lofgren A had the longest overhang at 16.8 mm and Lofgren B at 16.3mm. The Origin Live shows 17.5 mm. Is the Rega type alignment that much different than Lofgren or Stevenson? I also noticed with the OL alignment that cartridge offset in the headshell was noticeably greater.
What is also noticeable is the sonics of each alignment is different. To be honest, I like the overall sound of the OL alignment, but I also have this nagging feeling that it does not track as well.
I always felt at this stage of my audio journey I knew how to align a cartridge. I have been doing it since I was in my 20's! Now I have a large degree of uncertainty of which alignment to choose, and what the implications are if i choose wrong. This arm is a long term keeper for me, so its a matter of wanting to get this set up optimized.
Any insights you might pass along is greatly appreciated. Do have a good chuckle at my expense as it seems that I get into these moments of self doubt, and trying to find the way out of the forest of audio can be quite comical.
@mijostyn @lewm I did set up my latest cart myself.
True statement, without microscopy analysis. The analysis gives you the data to account for azimuth, SRA and zenith errors and the tools and a custom shim to correct them, as well as tonearm adjustment and anti-skating. PS. 2 of the 3 main suppliers of stylus/cantilever assemblies publish zenith error tolerances of +/- 5%. |
This is why I am an alignment nihilist and now very fond of an underhung tonearm that has no headshell offset angle (or significant skating force) to worry about. All that’s left to worry about is zenith error. Even a 1 or 2 degree error in zenith, if ignored, will cause problems with alignment, no matter how otherwise precise. Mijo, you are probably correct about image focus, but when you do twist the cartridge in the headshell, then you are putting unequal forces on the cantilever (up and down motion of the cantilever is not in line with up and down motion of the headshell and bearings at the pivot). I don’t know what that does sonically, but it may do something we hear. |
Dear @neonknight : If you have to stay with that 222 P2S distance and at the same time you like that overhang be 17.5mm you can get it with Löfgren A alignment making a change in the most outer groove alignment .
You can use the VE calculator that permits you to change almost any input calculation parameter and in your case you only has to choose instead than the default IEC most outer groove distance you will use 148.5mm ( custom choice ) and you achieve 17.51mm, then you are there:
Tonearm Alignment Calculator Pro - Vinyl Engine
or changing the P2S to 219 you can get this:
Tonearm Alignment Calculator Pro - Vinyl Engine
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS.
R. |
@lewm I should have been more specific. Twisting the cartridge just a few degrees in the headshell is enough to blur the image. There are always unequal forces on the cantilever. A few degrees one way or another is not going to matter. Shoot, there are people who will swear their cartridge sounds better without antiskating and if you look at their cantilever it is skewed 5 or 6 degrees towards the right channel. @macg19 , I study every cartridge I can under high magnification. You can see some pictures here, https://imgur.com/gallery/stylus-photomicrographs-hmTaO0m I check SRA and Zenith and the best cartridges are beautifully constructed. Azimuth is easy to see on the SmarTractor, you look for a symmetrical reflection and SRA is right when your arm is parallel to the record surface. If a cartridge is off it is usually easy to see. The last defect I even picked up with the naked eye. a cartridge with a SRA of 89 degrees. The manufacturer replaced it immediately. He had just started using a new adhesive and it was not setting up as fast and the stylus was drifting forward. I have yet to see a cartridge with a significant zenith error. I'm sure they are out there. I just got a Shure V 15 V MR body and ordered a Jico SAS/B for it. It will be interesting to see how accurate it is. I will post pictures of it. |
@mijostyn I think you are talking about hearing errors in alignment which I totally agree are easily audible versus differences in the geometry you choose to align to. But I am curious about your statement about "twisting the cartridge in the headshell a few degrees", by which I think you mean the zenith adjustment. I have yet to find any information about how you can tell in which direction and by how much your zenith is in error. Most of us simply align the cantilever since we have no way of aligning the diamond but as @macg19 points out and JR at Wally Tools has asserted the zenith error in how the stylus is mounted to the cantilever can significantly exceed the generally small errors that occur when carefully mounting the cartridge to the tonearm. Other than randomly twisting the cartridge back and forth and listening is there any way know in what direction and by how much the zenith error (including the error in the stylus mounted to the cantilever) is? And I mean without paying Wally Tools $500 for their cartridge analysis service. |
