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Cart not parallel after Mint LP alignment?

Howdy,

So after reading about 1000 paragraphs on how good the Mint LP Tractor is - I purchased one and had a marathon session yesterday with my new SL-1210 M5G, AT440MLa and Zupreme headshell...

After all was said and done - the alignment itself took 90 hard minutes - I am finding the cartridge sitting about 5-7 degrees "right" of center. The actual cantilever and stylus are about as dead on as I wanna go with it for now.

Now a comment and a question....

Question: Is this non-parallel result in the headshell normal? It's making me think I may have a bent cantilever or something.

Comment: I have run 10-12 sides thru the rig so far and I must say - I have not yet heard the "revelation" that others have described when comparing their alignments to other protractors or even the white Technics alignment gauge. The rig sounds good...but...what I am missing here.

I must temper the above by saying I have changed phono stages frequently in the last month as well...I was getting nicely familiar with a Bellari VP-130 and then moved that for a Cambridge which lasted less than a week and I now have a Moon LP3 with maybe 25 hours on it...Even my AT440MLa might have 40-50 hours on it as well....

I am thinking that a whole bunch of stuff might need to "burn" in before the system starts to really reveal itself.

But I am very concerned with the stylus/cantilever on the cart...even with all the moves the Mint required...I expected the cartridge to sit straight in the headshell...perhaps expecting too much?

Appreciate any feedback.

Cheers!

VP
vocalpoint
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rauliruegas
13,113 posts
 
Dear VP: We on the MM/MI long thread start/follow ( last 12 post there. ) your thread subject.
Could be interesting to read about. This is one of my posts there on the subject:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1200430667&openflup&2114&4#2114

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
siniy123
166 posts
 
yes, Lew.
in single point suspension cartridge system if the record plane and tonearm and its headshell planes are level, anti skate is properly applied: the diamond tip should be in the same plane as cantilever pivot point under VTF. This plane should be perpendicular to to record plane. It all taking in account that VTF force vector is big enough to correct cantilever suspension. Twisting cartridge in headshell created different weight distribution that tonearm was originally designed for. May be cartridge weight distribution plays some factor when there is synergy or opposite of it between cartridges and tonearms.
siniy123
166 posts
 
Lew, it is better to be flexible in all planes from the get go. That the purpose of cantilever suspension to be flexible.
vinyladdict
164 posts
 
Lewm - Just to be clear.

Yip does indeed make the Technics protractors using the Stevenson alignment geometry. Stevenson null points are 60.3mm and 117.4mm whereas the Technics null points (that will result in the cartridge being close to square in the headshell) are 58.8mm and 113.5mm respectively.
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rauliruegas
13,113 posts
 
Dear Vinyladdict: Those null points values depend of what standards was used for the whole calculations: DIN or IEC, the null points you obtain are different in each case.
Even you can choose your own " standard ".

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
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