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Uni-Protractor Set tonearm alignment

Looks like Dertonarm has put his money where his mouth is and designed the ultimate universal alignment tractor.

Early days, It would be great to hear from someone who has used it and compared to Mint, Feikert etc.

Given its high price, it will need to justify its superiority against all others. It does look in another league compared to those other alignemt devices

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtnrm&1303145487&/Uni-Protractor-Set-tonearm-ali
downunder
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Dear T_bone,
a correct calculated alignment curve - much to my regret ... ;-) ... - has practically almost zero influence on the skating force. Unless the alignment curve is really VERY bad and raises to astronomic values.
Cheers,
D.
04rdking's avatar
04rdking
178 posts
 
To Jazzgene,

"To note, I did not like the sound of Lofgren IEC and reset my cartridge to VPI's own jig which has a sweeter timbre and less harshness on grand pianos."......

"Is Uni-Pro worth the 700 bucks? That would be up to the individual and their wallet. For me, it was a great purchase as it makes setting up my cartridge so much easier with no fuss. So a yes for me......."

So, you say it's worth the 700 bucks, just to go back to your old original alignment with the supplied jig......

I don't understand that.......
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Dear 04rdking, please read Jazzgene's full post - he did not like Loefgren B IEC (which is a standard calculation ) and will try the special VPI-template supplied with his UNI-Protractor and the Baerwald/Loefgren A instead. It is a choice of alignment-options - not of the alignment instrument.
Cheers,
D.
jazzgene
145 posts
 
@04rdking

It's okay if you don't understand it.

The Uni-Pro allows me to try out different alignments. I just didn't like the Lofgren IEC compared to the VPI. I will try the Baerwald IEC and the VPI specific alignment later this week. Perhaps I'll find one of them preferable to the VPI alignment.

Oh, I also want to add that the Uni-Pro is much more precise than the VPI jig. The VPI jig has a certain amount of play between the jig and the metal piece that moves to contact the pivot base. The parralax effect can throw you off on the vpi jig as well.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
DT,
I would have figured that different alignments altered the shape of the tracking error curve (this is indeed the critique of using a Stevenson vs a Baerwald - that the tracking error curve is "worse" than the Baerwald over the whole of the recrod) and/or tracking angle curves as functions of radius, even if ever so slightly. If they did so, would the skating force curve not change as well?
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