DaVinci tonearm and azymuth

Pro: Most mechanisms for adjusting azimuth introduce some compromise into the rigidity of the cartridge-headshell-tonearm-pivot linkage. Leaving out the adjustment eliminates such theoretical "issues".

Con: You cannot adjust azimuth. You therefore may be missing some of the wonderfulness that comes when soundstage snaps into place and sounds "right". As has been said, you may be able to correct azimuth by the judicious use of shims here or there. But after living with the TP for the last 15 years, I would hate to go back to that method.

Lewm: While the Feickert software measures crosstalk, it also measures phase, to which the ear is more sensitive. The azimuth angles at which crosstalk and phase error are minimized don't always coincide, although they are often close. Since minimum phase error is of most interest, whether the channel output levels are identical is not so critical. Several months ago I measured an exotic cartridge which had been problematic for a client; as it turned out there was severe channel imbalance on the order of 4.5 dB, so it was replaced with a conventional cartridge...the improvements with the azimuth about 2 degrees off level were mind blowing.

Hello Ebalog,

0.5 degrees is FAR too coarse of an increment for setting azimuth. I don't care what the numbers tell you. Now, you could get lucky and effect an improvement (say for example that you're off by 0.7 degrees and reduce the error to 0.2), but the odds are against your geting your azimuth dead-on.

If I recall, Wally used to make a device that mimicked one of the Ortofon(?) cartridges - essentially, a knife edge pivot that runs longitundinally along the cartridge body and between the two mounting screws.

The idea is to tighten one screw and loosen the other in order to induce a tilt - with contact between the cartridge body and headshell consisting of the two screws and the knife edge.

Now, the obvious problem here is that you're introducing another material interface between cartridge and headshell. You're also changing the contact surface area. Either change could have an overall deleterious effect on the sound ... or not (not even considering azimuth changes).

You might try experimenting with various materials and actually improve things from an energy transfer perspective. You never know where you're going to end up in this ballgame when it comes to material interfaces, and keep in mind that what works for a titanium cartridge body may well not work with aluminum, coral, ebony, etc.

Try a thin strip of copper. It's easy to cut with a pair of scissors. You should be able to find it in a hobby shop, or alternatively, over here: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Shielding.html.

You might also try aluminum foil.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

I use the Feickert software for azimuth. I had an interesting experience. A cartridge I tested showed the correct azimuth when it was literally way off from vertical. I thought I had a bad cartridge. I sent it to PL for evaluation.

According to PL, this cartridge was great and wonderful. I asked about the fact that when it was perfect vertical, one channel showed -38db and the other -29. His answer was "it is what it is" and this is very common. Another words, correct azimuth can show wide discrepancy between channels regarding crosstalk.

So, in this case, I could not follow the recommendation by the software as it told you to rotate the shell 45 degrees to have similar crosstalk numbers...