Azimuth observations and importance

Theres all types of tools that can get you close but theres no substitute for playing music and getting/finding that final super spot. Its like getting VTA right the stage opens up and the sounds become open and theres air between them. I believe we are so much into gadgets that we forgot we have the best tools and there free right in our body our brain and ears.

Take the time and effort get it close by leveling or measurement and then play a good mono record and when the stage opens up and the music sounds wide and deep you have it and your ears will tell you so. Now play a well recorded stereo record and be amazed. Its not hard it just takes time and the return for your effort is priceless.

Take it from someone who believed in looking at measurements with there eyes instead of listening to sounds with my ears when doing critical adjustments necessary with such a small signal/voltage delivered by our cartridges.

Stltrains you are so right but the world looks for simple solutions and when the marketing campaign starts knowledge or belief in its own virtues is no more the choice. This product is triggered as the overall solution to the vinyl challenges. God beware me! You need to have a closer look at the sales efforts currently going on and you will join me in saying- this product is good for the ones believing in the product...

I now tested the Fozgometer. Yes - it works. Also the channel balancing is a good feature. But - as I assumed - it is not very precise. The needle of the meter scale is moving in between 2 -5 gradations during the reading of the signal from the delivered TestLp. Even Musical Surroundings admits that a 12.5% deviance is acceptable.

So it is a good tool maybe for the beginner or people who never cared about the Azimuth. And it gives a good feeling for not so much money...

Below are results I achieved with my VPI Classic 3 and Dynavector XX-2 MKII. In the specification the XX-2 MKII channel balance is specified as 1 db at 1khz. The Cartridge was aligned with a MINTLP protractor custom made by YIP for the table. I have done multiple alignments with the Mintlp, and I spent some time getting it right on with a 10x loupe. I used the multimeter method at the preamp output for the test and a test record which has right and left tracks only. As you can see, with a perfectly flat headshell, my total crosstalk was -55.64db with a separation of 3.15db, which is over the 1 db spec. I needed to get the right channel with less crosstalk. I tried tilting towards the left channel, which did not lower the right channel crosstalk, it actually increased it. When tilting towards the right channel the crosstalk between the 2 channels started to converge. On the last measurement you can see I was able to achieve a total combined crosstalk of -58.94 with a separation of 0db with a 0.94 degree tilt towards the right channel. Of interest is the total combined crosstalk went down by 3.41db by tilting 0.94 degrees and the left channel was not affected at all relative to the headshell flat crosstalk. The crosstalk remained at -29.47, but I was able to decrease the right channel be 3.41 db.

Channel V1 V2 crosstalk (db) Channel V1 V2 crosstalk (db) Azimuth (degrees) total separation
Left 4.72 0.16 -29.40 Right 4.72 0.25 -25.52 0.19 Tilt Left channel -54.92 3.88
Left 4.69 0.20 -27.40 Right 4.69 0.27 -24.80 0.19 Tilt Left channel -52.20 2.61
Left 4.72 0.19 -27.90 Right 4.72 0.28 -24.54 0.75 Tilt Left channel -52.44 3.37
Left 4.72 0.16 -29.40 Right 4.72 0.23 -26.24 0.00 Flat headshell -55.64 3.15
Left 4.69 0.16 -29.34 Right 4.69 0.23 -26.19 0.38 Tilt right channel -55.53 3.15
Left 4.72 0.15 -29.96 Right 4.72 0.21 -27.03 0.38 Tilt right channel -56.99 2.92
Left 4.72 0.16 -29.40 Right 4.72 0.20 -27.46 0.56 Tilt right channel -56.85 1.94
Left 7.14 0.22 -30.23 Right 7.14 0.31 -27.25 0.56 Tilt right channel -57.47 2.98
Left 7.14 0.22 -30.23 Right 7.14 0.29 -27.83 0.75 Tilt right channel -58.05 2.40
Left 7.14 0.24 -29.47 Right 7.14 0.24 -29.47 0.94 Tilt right channel -58.94 0.00

does anyone use shims (spacers) for azimuth adjustment on a non-adjustable tonearm? does anyone make a set thin enough for this purpose?