Well Tempered Ref. Arm

I owned a Classic for 10 years and I never ever saw the paddle seated at an angle as you have indicated unless I had recently moved the table and tilted it in doing so or unless you are moving the arm to the record in which case the paddle will momentarily be angled but should quickly settle back to a parallel plane. Is your TT level? Do you have enough fluid in the arm cup to cover the paddle evenly? Who set up the arm? Is the filament of equal length on both sides?

I'm confused by your question. Is this not corrected by the azimuth adjusting knob? Are you saying that when the azimuth is correct, the paddle is not parallel? And that when the paddle is parallel, the azimuth is wrong? Remember that if you are using the clamp, the LP surface is not flat, but dished and higher on the outer edge of the LP. If you adjust azimuth accordingly, the arm will appear tilted and not parallel to the fluid cup. Although it is parallel to the record surface.

Based on all the responses above let me elaborate. I'm guessing that where the arm goes thru the two upward protruding parts of the paddle the arm should be affixed (how it's placed in there and affixed I -- assume -- is a friction fit) so that the head shell,and thus the cartridge,would be parallel to the record surface ;and the paddle would also be parallel.It appears that my arm is not quite oriented correctly - which means that the paddle is canted somewhat in the fluid. Now, apparently it works fine because the azimuth looks fine but I guess I'm wondering if this less than perfect fabrication takes any toll on performance?

I understand what you are saying. Same answer as before. As I recall, azimuth is a seperate adjustment on this arm and probably has little if anything to do with your problem. The paddle being out of kilter has more to do with arm damping, anti-skate, and drop speed for the arm since there is no cuing.

I agree with HiFiharv. The platter is concave so the record slopes toward the spindle when clamped. The cartridge therfore should be slightly tilted to maintain the proper azimuth with the record groove. It would be normal then for the paddle to be slightly tilted in the fluid cup and NOT perfectly horizontal.