Feickert analogue protractor....Owners impressions

Just thought I'd mention this.

I noticed on DaVinci Audio web site a Feickert protractor comes with Davincis Grandezza tonearms.

I noticed something today about the Feickert template. I measured the spindle-pivot distance on my Aries-3 TT and it's 261mm. I then move my stylus to touch the 261mm mark on the Feickert template - so far so good. Then I thought let's try another point on the template, I move the stylus to 300mm mark and to my surprise it touches it as well. I then move my stylus to all other marks and it touches all of them.

So now what? I thought the stylus is supposed to touch only one mark?? Now I'm confused, why do we even bothered measuring the spindle-pivot distance?

A little off subject maybe, but Feickert also has new software available (adjust +). Anyone have experience with this yet? Does it work as well or better than the DMM method of azimuth adjustment? The website is a German-English translation and doesn't give me a good feel for how easy this would be to use or how effective it would be.

Viper_z,

You've touched upon the weakness of all universal two-point protractors - overhang setting. The Feickert has a lovely pivot-to-spindle distance tool, but after that I find the pivot-to-spindle markings to be useless - you're correct, you touch all the points on that "arc" (and frankly how can that be ?); I find the lines on the alignment grids themselves to be too thick for accuracy, and that the lack of a mirrored surface introduces too much parallax. If you cannot set effective length (pivot-to-spindle distance + overhang) accurately, what's the point of continuing further? Then you move the protractor to do the actual alignment, but what are you aligning to - some random effective length? How does one derive a correct overhang setting with a "universal" two-point protractor?? The answer is you can't - you get it close, moving the protractor and/or the cartridge in the headshell back and forth until you come up with something that looks right, but isn't.

Obtain an arc-based protractor designed for your tonearm's measurements: pivot-to-spindle ditance and overhang (this is important, and why arc-based protractors cannot be universal (unless they contain multiple arcs)). Measure your pivot-to-spindle distance as accurately as possible with the Feickert tool: if your arm is designed to have a pivot-to-spindle distance of 261mm, and that's your actual measurement, then you have a properly installed tonearm; .5mm is the threshold of accuracy. Then place an arc-based protractor on the platter - start at a point on the arc either close to the lead-in or lead-out groove, and adjust the cartridge in the headshell accordingly so that the stylus lands exactly on the arc at both the inside and outside arc points, then proceed to the actual alignment. Ken Willis over at the Audio Asylum offers an excellent arc-based protractor, and there are several downloadable versions which vary in quality (be very critical of your printer's scaling). The next step up is a Wallytractor, and (IMHO) the MintLP protractor is the best of all.

I can almost guarantee that after some practice you'll find alignment easier, quicker, more intuitive and accurate with an arc-based protractor than any universal two-point protractor. Most importantly, you won't belive how good your table will sound. Good listening,

-Richard

I don't think this is needed. I have a VPI arm which came with a VPI Single Point protractor. I was careful to align the cartridge to it, and no one has proven to me that there is any difference between my setup, using the VPI and any other method. Anytime someone brings some new protractor, it always measures the same. ...just do it right the first time.