Well Tempered Amadeus

Samtse, I don't believe there is any adjustment for overhang on the Amadeus. The unit I auditioned just had holes in the headshell not slots.

Baranyi, I heard side by side a VPI Classic and Well Tempered Amadeus at a dealer in Seattle. The comparison was not completely fair because the Classic had a Dynavector 20xl and the Amadeus a Karat 17d3.

I preffered the sound of the Amadeus with the Karat. The difference in sound was exactly like the discriptions of the two different cartrides I have read online. The 20xl had great bass but is a little closed in sounding on top.
The 17d3 is more open sounding and the bass is less strong.

So I think both tables are great but I bought the VPI because the dealer was selling the demo to get the newest version. Also it is nice to have a tonearm lift. The lack of overhang adjustment on the Amadeus is not a good thing IMO. I did like that you could adjust azimuth on the fly on the Amadeus though.

I'm using a van den Hul Frog on my Classic now and it sounds great. Very open sounding with solid bass.

Cheers,

Sean

Hi Bob and Sean,did you see the Well Tempered Blog?the WT Blog say the overhang is 0.5 inches,and the nude point of the protractor is 1 7/8 inches.so i think if you are Amadeus user,you will know my question,by the way.THANKS.

Sam

Hi Sam,

No, I don't have an Amadeus, so I am not trying to tell you what you should do. But I am really curious about the turntable and am trying to learn more about its tonearm/cartridge geometry.

I guess I really don't understand your question. As far as I can tell from reading the Amadeus blog and the owner's manual, you're just supposed mount the cartridge in the fixed headshell and be done with it. It seems to be impossible to adjust the overhang or the tracking angle. I don't understand what you mean by, "the nude point of the protractor is 1 7/8 inches." What exactly is your question?

On the Amadeus blog, it states:

"After my investigations, I decided to relieve users of Amadeus of the issue of setting tonearm geometry and to use a fixed geometry. Based on the comprehensive analysis of J.K. Stevenson in the May and June 1966 article Pickup Arm Design and based on the dimensions of several phono cartridges in my inventory, I designed the tonearm for Amadeus to have a fixed tracking angle of 19 degrees and an overhang of 0.5”."

...and...

"The Amadeus Headshell is factory fixed in position. The Well Tempered Lab unequivocally reiterate that it should not be moved."

The owner's manual states:

"The headshell is fixed ex-factory in the optimum position. There is no provision for over-hang adjustment."

This seems to imply that all cartridges in Mr. Firebaugh's inventory produce an overhang of 0.5" when mounted on the fixed headshell of the Amadeus. That means every cartridge he has must have the same distance between the cartridge's mounting holes and the tip of the stylus. Given the wide range of this dimension that I've found among cartridges in my experience, this is difficult to believe. Perhaps it would be helpful if Mr. Firebaugh told us which particular cartridges produce an overhang of 0.5" when mounted on the Amadeus??

-Bob

Samtse, just set the cartridge parallel to the lines and you'll be fine....hopefully you've done so by now...seems to me you're overthinking over there...that is cut and dry.
What you want to concern yourself with is to be careful not to overdamp (do not submerge the ball too low in the fluid)

word on the street is Mr Firebaugh has many cartridges to play with....

Chashas1, I'm still kind of struggling to understand various comments about the Amadeus. If the headshell is fixed in position, how is it possible to "set the cartridge parallel to the lines"? This would imply you can alter the position of the cartridge in the headshell (i.e., by at least twisting it). But how is this possible if the headshell is fixed in position? Thanks for any help you can offer.
-Bob