2. analog
  3. 1283794383

getting azimuth right

I was checking the alignment and it just occured to me the the stylus was listing towards the inside of the record. The cartridge is perpendicular to the record but the stylus is not right. So... I made some some azimuth adjustments. Well, to say that their was an improvement would be putting it lightly. At first it sounded a little thin, then... The sound went from being somewhat fat to more precise, larger soundstage, blacker, tighter bass with more impact and weight. My cartridge never tracked the inside grooves of a record like this before. The sound is relaxed and natural. However, the cartridge now leans towards the outside of the record slightly, but the stylus is now perpendicular to the record. Is this unusual? The difference in horns and piano is amazing. I think I learned something today. Wow. The sound is so relaxed and not edgy and the decay.... wow. I learned how important getting azimuth right is. I can't even say how many times I have worked on getting the aligment right and fiddled with this cartridge. I just got a big payoff for my labors

I had to write this because I hope to share this info with others that may be going through what I did and to not give up on analog. I just know their has to be others that have overlooked this. How can this be? I thought the cartridge should perfectly perpedicular to the record and the whole straw on the tonearm thing. Not so. You really have to look good. The mintlp kit helped me very much in figuring this out. Now I can see how important an azimuth tool can be. I can tell there is probably some fine tuning I could do but I am excited to say the least.
tzh21y
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
So what does the Fozz provide that a simple digital multimeter couldn't do for you? Just play a test tone in the right channel and measure the voltage in the left, then repeat the process the other way round. You want to minimize and balance the crosstalk number from each channel - right?
doctorcilantro
59 posts
 
After reading the Feickhart documentation, it seems that setting azimuth 1st for proper phase, then potentially living with a 2db of crosstalk is the way to go. they make the VERY interesting claim, that VTA will greatly affect phase but not crosstalk so you could never detect that just by looking at the voltage as nothing would change.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
The crosstalk is a function of the cartridge motor. You can't adjust it in anyway. I agree with the Feickhart docs in that getting az and vta relatively correct does have a great deal to do with the phase it seems to me. I'm going by what I hear when vta or az is not close. Many times when people mention that their image from the vinyl source is not centered I believe this is the issue. If you have good imaging this is easy to hear. I think that we humans are more sensitive to phase than slight differences in amplitudes. Then again, I could be fos. ;-)
koegz
317 posts
 
A very simple and acurate method. Simply use a test record with a 1kHz sound from 1 channel at a time. then use a sound meter(radio shack) the same distance from each speaker and adjust. easy, quick, cheap and acurate.
dre_j
159 posts
 
Koegz,

I’m having trouble understanding your comment but will try to share my thought anyway. Based on your statement above, I’ll try to follow along. However, the only thing this approach will do is allow you to possibly hear a channel imbalance of the total system including the room. It certainly won't allow you to properly adjust azimuth. If someone is using azimuth to adjust for channel imbalance, I'd suggest that is not the purpose or proper use for this adjustment.

If we are trying to adjust for proper channel balance, the best place for this is with a balance control in the phonostage or the preamp. If the cartridge balance is that far off, it's probably a good idea to send it back to the manufacturer for a replacement.

Dre
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