Mint Tractor

Please forgive me folks for the numerous typo errors in my last post. I'm a great speller, but a poor typer, and usually never spell check until "after" I hit send.

One mistake I made, and I want to further elaborate, like others have advised, I felt no need to have to tape the Mintlp Protractor to Platter.

A tip for you VPI folks I've noted, do remove your little Rubber Spindle Washer, the Tractor will then lay perfectly flat on the Platter.

For the HW-19 folks, what I did, instead of wedging the underside of Platter to Plinth, and worrying about marring my shiny new Custom Black Acrylic Plinth, I wedged a small Cube of Magic Eraser in between Platter, and Motor Pulley Cover.

Just earlier "I had to pull out the heavy artillery", yanking out a brand new LP I've never yet played on my system, The Pure Pleasure Re-Issue of SRV-Texas Flood.

Wasn't looking so much to evaluate my earlier alignment efforts, but just enjoy a bit of music

Of course Texas Flood was previously cleaned with a 4-step AIVS process, and VPI 16.5 before Stylus ever touched the Vinyl. I must say this LP really sounded killerwith such lead guitar "bite", yet not at all harsh-thin, or stringent. I'm beginning to feel that my system is starting to leave the realm of what I call "mid-fi", with much better refinement. I now can say without reservation, that my ZYX Airy 3X sounds "airy"!

Thanks to Doug, Mehran, and the others who know about, and review such equipment here. My ZYX was a very wise purchase.

Sirspeedy, Please forgive me for being "Phantom Dumb", but I'm sure there's folks here who can be of better help than I with good advice. I'm sure as others with much better Tables-Arms-Cartridges than I, such as Dan-Ed, Doug, and many others will attest, the Mintlp Protractor will pleasantly enhance your analog rig. Mark

Mark,actually I wasn't targeting you for an accurate Phantom "rap".I understand your input was a bit more general,but very good no doubt!It really got me thinking.

Instead I was kind of fishing for anyone "kinda" understanding where I was coming from,regarding the already very good,but maybe not the "best" way to "do" a Graham Phantom(or 2.2) set up,if one desires to go to the max.

Actually,to be more specific....do any Graham owners use a more specific method,other than the supplied set-up tools?

Specifically,if so,do you feel the Mint or Wally has resulted in an audible improvement over the original tools,already provided by Graham?

This would be of interest to myself,and I assume other happy Graham owners.

A small part of me is hoping for "no" replies(a first)since they would mean I'm "really" going to have to do more sweating and work.

Best

Speaking of typos. In my previous post, 0.5mm lines are actually 0.25mm lines. The line width comparison doesn't change.

Sirspeedy
Regarding the excellent Graham jigs for the Phantom arm.
I made a few comments about the jigs through out the Feikert Analogue Protractor thread starting at 06-30-08.

Briefly, ever so carefully using the Graham cartridge jig, end results were close but not spot on.
I would have never of known this if I did not use the Mint tractor to check set up against the Graham jig.

With final set up using the Graham jig I found your simply relying on line of sight which result in an error in set up, for me anyway.

Also I believe different cantilever lengths in the Graham jig could also slightly throw off final set up.

I understand there has been a slight up date to the series two Phantom cartridge jig, a target line of sort for a reference guide.

Sirspeedy, even with the series two Phantom jig, the money spent on the Mint tractor for piece of mind would be money well spent....Double checking and getting precise alignment of your cantilever and stylus will have enormous sonic benefits.

Stiltskin,I am in full agreement.

Thanks