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Should I keep my Well tempered tonearm?

I have had this arm for years. I am currently in the middle of getting an oracle Delphi MKIII. My alexandria it was on has had it, and its not logical to repair what needs replacement.

I have always had mistracking issues with this tonearm and whatever cartridge. I just sold a Grado Sonata, which may have been a mistake. I have tried multiple cartridges (read 4 different known good units) and never seem to get it right.

I ordered the protractor from stanalog because I am concerned that its incorrectly set overhang causing mistracking. When I say mistracking I mean sibalence.

I have played with every possible setting and never had it setup to my satisfaction.

Honestly, I am sick of screwing around with this arm. I am about ready to get rid of it and get something different.

The manual isn't all that great as far as installation instructions either. It lists that you mount the cart and set overhang by twisting the arm mounting until the stylus lines up with the overhang circle. This makes no sense to set overhang with an arbitrary cartridge mounting arrangement.

Sorry if this seems like a rant, but I am very frustrated and annoyed with this arm. I just want to listen to good sounding clean music. Not dirty sibalence.

Thanks guys, your input would be appreciated. I would likely have to buy an arm that is priced close to what the WTT is worth used because I won't have a ton of money left over.

Evan

BTW, I put a 10x5 on a thorens turntable and could listen to that all day compared to my setup.
240z4u
240z4u OP
32 posts
 
Well, I made some progress yesterday.

I reset the overhang after finding the dimension in some paperwork that I had long forgotten about. .63" is the overhang for anyone who needs to know.

I reset the arm completely, azimuth/vta/etc...

Sound is getting much better. I need to find a good way to remove some silicone from my damping trough though. I may still have the cart overdamped.

Most of the sibalence is gone, and I think I can eliminate the rest.

Looks like there is hope for this thing yet!

Thanks everyone, especially David!

Evan
kitch29
316 posts
 
Use Q-tips.

Dip the Q-tip and raise it with a glob of stuff and turn until it doesn't drip, then discard. Do another and another.
240z4u OP
32 posts
 
Good call.
lewm
13,142 posts
 
In my experience trying to make the WT Reference tonearm work well on a WT Reference turntable, I found the arm to be almost inevitably overdamped. Even when I got it to work properly (on behalf of a dear friend who owns the set-up) the sound was dull dull dull, compared to what can be had from vinyl. That was the best case scenario. Worst case, it would not track at all. Azimuth was ever changing across the surface of the LP from outer to inner grooves. So, I am not crazy about this tonearm. Novel ideas are not always good ideas. Would not own one myself. No meanness or insult is intended.
roscoeiii's avatar
roscoeiii
1,155 posts
 
Wow Lewm,

Resurrecting an old thread. That said, this concern with the original tonearm design overdamping was what led me to pass on a used table with the original arm and go for the new golfball design found on the Amadeus and Simplex. Well worth checking out. Once dialed in I don't find this table overdamped at all.
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