Feickert analogue protractor....Owners impressions

A $15.00 increase in three years, it's still a bargain.

Doug I read your mention of using the Magic Eraser a while ago and picked a box up at Walmart, a life time supply is what you get for next to nothing.

My Zero Dust at $60.00 has found a new home, a junk drawer.

Doug,it's hard for me to believe "you" of all people are going to "need" something else that will allow you to fine tune your set-up any more than it already is !!

I already got the impression that you have the eye of a Bald Eagle,and the hands of a Vascular Surgeon.Not to mention the amazing degree of "Doug-osity",which is defined as audio knowledge on par with Michael Phelps' swimming ability!Ok,maybe I'm getting carried away...."that one" may belong to Raul!

So,why waste the money...go buy a few nice bottles of Barolo or a nice Australian Shiraz...."Downunder" can help with the wine selection -:)

Trust me,once under the influence of a half bottle you'll hear a big improvement in sound.Paul can knock off the other half!

Best

I traded in the Freickert for a Shunyata power chord in Singapore at the Adelphi last week. Got a pretty good deal loosing only 30% over a month or so. This was possible coz the MintLP arrived, again via Singapore, last week.Aligning my Rega RB 1000 with the MintLP was a two stage process. On day one got the overhang right(this is the easier bit). On day two adjusted the offset( or rather the lack of it) spot on. Yip supplied a 5X magnifying glass along with the 10X loupe.Its a pretty ingenious device coz you use parallax to get the alignment of the cantilever spot on.I was not too comfortable with the loupe and used the magnifying glass that comes with a tiny light bulb.
Did it sound better? Definitely. Using my standard reference demo lp - Amanda McBroom "Dreaming" achieved an all round smoothness( not sure if thats an appropriate audiophile term but it best describes what I felt)that I have not come anywhere close to achieving with my vinyl rig and its pretty close to what I think the vinyl magic is all about.
I can only strongly endorse and echo what Stiltskin and others have said on this thread about the MintLP : its an outstanding product. Apart from obvious and significant sonic benefits its a great feeling to know that your cartridge is set up just right.
Out of curiosity compared the alignment with the cardboard protractor supplied by Rega. Now this is the interesting bit : the alignment was identical!!

Sunny,

Interesting note regarding the stock Rega cardboard protractor vs the MintLP. I'm curious if Yip designs his Rega protractors with Stephenson alignment nulls (like the stock Rega protractor). Anyone who's ever tried to align a cart on a Rega using Baerwald knows there's barely enough room to get the overhang correct - you simply run out of headshell slot and end up with the cart all the way forward in the headshell (depending on the cart of course). While I've never played around with an RB1000, I know this to be the case on an RB300. Interesting...

-Richard

Palasr
My experience with the protractors I downloaded from Vinyl engine is identical. The Baerwald and Lofgren were virtually un doable as I ran out of room to nudge the Cartridge(Lyra Helikon/Skala)foward. The best fit was with the Stevenson.Actually if you think about it its no surprise that the MintLP and the Rega supplied protractor yield the same result. Theoretically, there can only be one perfect alignment.The Mint LP allows you to achieve this with a degree of precision and certainty thats not possible with a cardboard or even the Freickert IMHO. In fairness to Yip, I should point out that its all to easy to compare the final alignment between the MintLP and the supplied Rega protractor.Could I have achieved the same quality of alignment using ONLY the Rega supplied protractor ? The answer is NO.