Tranfiguration Orpheus description

Tim,

Good question. The improvements were probably happening gradually but I heard a large change in the 160-180 hours point as if it had passed through some wall. The sound is now much more natural and pure.

Based on your experience, it looks like the magnification methods is not appropriate for azimuth. I'm wondering about the Wally device for that.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Glad to hear the Tranny is working well for you!

I have also had good results using Neal's method for SRA and agree that it usually ends up that the bearing end of the arm is abit higher than level. Nice to know we're getting similar results.

As for azimuth. I could see where this would be very difficult using the mirror approach. Mostly due to not being able to get the right magnification in right place, much like Tim posted about. I did experience the setting of azimuth by ear when Thom, Doug and Paul were up. It was such a tiny amount of adjustment that Thom was making so not really far from having the headshell level. It seems that a really good mono recording makes this method easier. Alas, that is something I don't have in my stash. Seems like several folks tried the Wally tool a year or so ago and came to the conclusion that the "ear" method was just as good. YMMV.

Best,

Dan

Andrew,

Cello and I each own a 25% share in a Wally Analog Shop. It works, and using it taught me two things (which Dan has already mentioned):

1. extremely small adjustments matter and,

2. I can set azimuth about as well by ear as by measuring (and with far less fuss).

4yanx also owned a share of our Wally at one time. He sold it after making the same discovery. Wanna buy my share? ;-)

As Tim said, cartridges are rarely if ever so flawless that stylus, cantilever, coils, suspension and magnets all align perfectly. It just doesn't happen in real manufacturing.

I set the stylus close to vertical to prevent vinyl damage or uneven wear. I don't find magnification helpful for this either. After that, fine adjustments to minimize crosstalk yield the best sound.

A good mono record works, but so does a good stereo one if there are well recorded instruments or vocalists in the center. Getting images tightly focused with maximum air is the goal.

Doug

Doug,

That's interesting. Let me think about buying your share:)

One thing I do that is helpful in identifying "close" to vertical alignment is putting a small level on the headshell while the arm is in it's resting position an varying azimuth till the side to side level is the same as the TT platter. Of course this could only be true level if the cartridge base to stylus alignment is true.

Maybe I should get a mono recording or one with clear certain center image to assist in varying from this point by ear. In your experience, what range of azimuth changes resulted in optimization. 1/8 turn? 1/4 turn? Or less? Also, did your setting through listening equal the setting you obtained using the Wally instrument? Finally, did you have to connect your speaker cables to the Wally device or can you just insert tonearm out puts or preamp outputs?

Thanks Doug as always.

Andrew

doug, I forgot you and Larry were in that group.

Andrew, it's not that the headshell has to be level. The important thing is that the headshell is in the same plane as the record/platter surface. Of course, this is assuming the stylus is at least close to perpendicular at this point. Just a place to start. If you go this route it won't matter what the bubble on the headshell says. If you try to level the platter and then level the headshell it comes down to how closely you can read the bubble. Kind of nit-picky, but it is simpler. Use the little block that came with the Triplanar to level the headshell with the platter surface.

The amount of change that I saw Thom make were in the very fine tweaky range. He used an Allen key and watched the amount of movement with the end of the key to judge how much movement he go. We're talking just nudging things on the threads.