Hi George,
Because my armboards allow for adjusting the p-s distance, the choice of protractor (and alignment) determines everything in a straightforward and simple manner.
The short answer is that I used a Baerwaald alignment.
Think of an SME tonearm where the offset angle is frozen because the headshell has mounting holes instead of slots. The SME adjusts p-s distance by moving the arm on a rail to achieve the correct alignment. By moving the arm on its rail, you change the pivot to spindle distance and therefore the overhang (overhang = effective length minus pivot-spindle distance)
Since for a given alignment there is only one combination of offset angle for any one effective length/pivot to spindle distance, the problem is reduced to one adjusting the p-s distance (overhang) to "null out" at the two Baerwaald (or alignment of your choosing) points - dialing in the correct overhang in the process.
People are reading too much into my mechanical sound comment. This is was only an attempt to describe the arm and is relevant *only* in comparison to the Schroeder Reference which is to my experience in a class by itself. The MX-282 is a very fine arm and as a whole, it is not mechanical sounding ... unless you hold it up against a Schroeder.
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I did some more playing over the weekend, both with the MX-282 as well as a Triplanar. The cartridges in question were a Benz LP and a Denon DL103R. These two arms are far more alike than they are different. If I had a perfect cartridge (which was a compliance match to the MX-282 arm, of course), I'd likely opt for the MX-282 over the Triplanar.
There is an important real world caveat however. A cartridge is only perfect by sheer luck. In this day and age, it's difficult to count on them being so. Jonathan Carr (Lyra) recently posted on Audio Asylum that he goes through all sorts of grief with his supplier of cantilevers/tips and can only get them to agree to +/- one degree alignment.
Jonathan would specify half that if he could. This comment alone should emphasize the importance of being able to compensate for the real-world manufacturing difficulties of hand made items like high performance cartridges.
In this very important practical respect, I have to give the nod to the Triplanar over the MX-282. I have growing intolerance for any arm of world-class pretenses that does not permit azimuth adjustment.
Even with the "lowly" Denon DL 103R cartridge, you can hear the effect of "spot on" azimuth.
Now, the DL 103R and its conically tipped brethren are fairly benign when the azimuth is not quite right. You won't hear any real nasties, and will never know that it is out of adjustment. If you have an arm capable of adjusting the azimuth however, only then will you get the magic it is capable of however.
Sorry to get on a rant about this. I'm dreadfully behind in replying on this thread and these above comments had some relevance to earlier posts ... even though their questions you didn't ask.
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
