Uni-Protractor Set tonearm alignment

Dear Thuchan, .. and your RMA 309 features no antiskating device at all - for good reason.
Cheers,
D.

When I first tried to actually use the UNIprotractor, I wished I hadn’t have volunteered to do a review.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see the stylus?!

The package from Germany arrived many days ago and at first I was slightly disappointed at the appearance of this plain brown cardboard box.
Surely a white or black box with some unique graphics was warranted to encase the high-tech machine-like tool within?
Of course that would have increased the costs and Daniel did not at first know, how many of these ‘machines’ he would sell?

Once opened, the contents were convincingly revealed to be well packaged and a few surprises, such as an LED high-powered lamp and a pair of soft white gloves were included.
Prior to its arrival, Daniel had Emailed the coloured Instruction Manual together with the appropriate micrometer settings for 5 of my 6 arms and let me say that with the exception of the Copperhead, these instructions are better than those which came with all my tonearms.

But back to the turntable.
I had easily assembled the UNIprotractor as detailed in the Manual, and had it positioned on the nude Victor TT-81 with the Fidelity Research FR-64s tonearm as the first ‘patient’.
This was not a fair test admittedly, for the ‘Dertonarm’ recommended geometry for the FR-64s does not follow Baerwald or Lofgren and the spindle to pivot distance recommended by the manufacturer, is not followed by the UNIprotractor.
I had already adjusted my spindle to pivot distance for the arm to be 231.5mm instead of 230mm and had aligned it via the Feikert protractor by utilising its ‘overhang’ alignment rather than its Baerwald alignment. This also required a ‘twist’ to the tracking angle but I didn’t have the correct ‘null points’ to accurately gauge this angle so I knew my set-up was inaccurate.
The cartridge was a MM favourite of mine……the Signet TK-7e mounted in the FR-3 headshell and for the life of me, I couldn’t see the stylus, head-on, through the magnifier.
After developing mild backpain crouching for over an hour, I decided to switch off the lights, have a coffee and a well-earned rest.
During this interlude, I pondered whether Dertonarm had erred in his design by using only modern LOMC cartridges rather than my preferred vintage MMs which had their stylus tips generally tucked well back from the fronts of the cartridges.
Had I just purchased a ‘white elephant’ I wondered as I gazed at the trees framed against a deepening blue sky?

After an hour, I returned to the turntable, switched on the LED lamp and peered once again through the magnifier.
Could it be? Was that it? A stylus tip?
I grabbed my hand-held magnifier and held it behind the fixed magnifier and there I saw it…….a clear stylus and its black cantilevered shaft framed against the mirrored gridlines of the UNIprotractor :-)
Most new tonearms are somewhat intimidating on first ‘set-up’ but once familiar, they become easier and eventually simple to adjust.
The same must be said for alignment tools.
The Feikert was initially difficult and is now child’s play as is Yip’s MintTractor and the WallyTractor.
Once I knew what I was looking at and for, it became easier and easier to use the UNI protractor until by the fifth arm, I was laughing.

The Signet TK-7e was ‘out’ by nearly 2mm and its tracking angle was also off. Easily fixed using the UNI.
My previous defacto set-up tool of choice has been the Feikert which is a one-point devise like the UNI. Whilst I use it to set spindle to pivot and overhang (based on Baerwald), I like to use the Mint to adjust the correct tracking angle at the Null points because it is so easy to see compared to all the other devices I have.
The Feikert came with my DaVinci 12” Ref Grandezza tonearm and whilst one face of the white Tractor Disc is marked as a ‘Universal’ template, the other face is dedicated solely to the DaVinci.
As such, you would expect it to be ultra accurate and so it was. The UNItractor proved that the DaVinci was as good as you can get.
With the other arms and various cartridges, the UNI showed some to be ALMOST perfect, whilst others required adjustment. None was perfect like the DaVinci, and having the UNItractor prove this fact, I trust it implicitly for the other arms.

So is the UNItractor worth its price? If you have several arms and/or interchangeable headshells equipped with multiple cartridges, I would say yes.
If you have only one arm and want the most accurate tool available to align an arm/cartridge then again I would say yes.
Is the UNItractor perfect? No, I think it can be improved…..and quite easily.
Firstly, being a one-point device rather than a two-point arc protractor, the spindle to pivot dimension is critical.
There seems little point IMO, to have the accuracy and tight tolerances of the UNI if you can be 2mm-5mm ‘out’ in your spindle to pivot distance?
The best device I have seen for measuring this dimension, is the adjustable Feikert aluminium sliding beam and locator. This is rigid and super accurate but what does the UNI provide?……a floppy steel rule. There is simply no way that anyone can come close to accuracy with this means other than by fluking it. And this is so silly because the UNItractor already has a device which is nearly as good as the Feikert. The locating device which locks onto the spindle and hovers over the tonearm pivot could easily have a scale on its base which can measure the spindle to pivot dimension. I know that Daniel is soon coming out with a proper measuring device but this IMO is unnecessary.

Another ‘improvement’ I could suggest is that the mirrored templates which ‘click’ into the protractor for each different arm, should be a ‘frosted’ mirror like the Mint instead of the full mirror which is more difficult IMO to see clearly.
A further suggestion I have is that the selected arm geometry should be engraved on these mirrored templates. At present one does not know if one is setting the arm for Lofgren A, B, Stevensen or something else as Daniel ‘pre-selects’ what he considers is best for each arm. In some cases that is simply the arm manufacturer’s recommended geometry so that for my Grace 940G and Micro Seiki MA-505S which both have the same effective length and overhang, Daniel supplies two separate templates.

Apart from these easily incorporated ‘improvements’, I have nothing but admiration for Dertonarm’s UNItractor.
A serious device for the serious analogue audiophile.
UNIprotractor

Dear Henry,
thank you for this throughout comprehensive and dedicated review.
Please allow me to briefly address the points of concern in your post/review about the UNI-Protractor.

* MA-505 / Grace 940.....
While both tonearms do indeed share the same overhang, mounting distance and effective length, they had different destinations from their designers.
Hence the two templates have very different null points.
Consequently the micrometer scale must show different values for these two templates too.
The Grace 940 follows an unusual alignment curve with VERY little distortion in the 2nd half of the record.
The MA-505 does follow (according to it's designers) rather the Stevenson DIN calculation. I have a bit "optimized" the MA505 calculation alignment, while letting the Grace 940's alignment stand as it is.

* ruler as P2S......
Well this was included as a handy tool ( and not mentioned in the initial Audiogon listing, but added as a "freebee" later. This is just intended to serve as a quick check whether the mounting distance is correct. I thought it to be a nice add-on, as it offers ( not common ...) 0.5mm scale.
Please note, that this can not be incorporated in the positioning arm, as the positioning arm does not aim direct over the spindle.
Since the UNI-Protractor was designed to offers precise alignment for all mounting distances, it's positioning arm can not aim direct over the spindle and must be variable too in it's distance to the spindle for different null-point-alignments ( please see Dennesen's original patent for further details and perfect explanation of the geometrical background ).
BTW - "my" P2S-tool - the UNI-P2S - will be introduced (finally) early next week.
This however will be much too much for most and is only a suitable tool for professionals who do set up tonearms on a daily/weekly basis and want the most precise.

* "full mirror" vs "frosted mirror"
That may be a matter of personal preferences - to my eyes the full mirror parallax is much better, as it allows for clear view of even the most minor declination (especially the helping lines left and right wing of the cantilever center line).

* geometry - name engraved on template
Those templates following any of the "standard 3" (Bearwald/Löfgren A, Löfgren B or Stevenson ) have been named so.
All the others do either follow their manufacturer's geometry or have been re-calculated by me. In those cases where I have recalculated a specific tonearm's alignment, I have named it so (i.e. FR-64s 231.5 D.B.) as this most often goes hand-in-hand with a mounting distance different from the manufacturer's specifications.
If my "correction" was rather marginal (i.e. MA-505) I have not left my signature.

Again - many thanks for your time and effort to supply this review !!
Still worth a smile IMHO is the fact that the birth of the UNI-Protractor was initially provoked by the deleted "FR-64s geometry" - thread of past early winter.
Cheers,
D.

I enjoyed your review.

For me, I want to do a better job finding the center of the pivot on the 10.5i arm with the Uni-Pro. Perhaps the reticule can be of a different color? Since it is white, it is a bit tough to see against the silver of the 10.5i arm. This issue is not limited to Uni-Pro. Feickert and Clearaudio also has this issue. The center rod is too skinny for the center hole of the 10.5i arm pivot. At least the Uni-Pro provides a reticule.

Dear Jazzgene, good point here ! On black colored finish tonearms the UNI-Pro's reticle will be best as it is, but I will pick up your suggestion and will have a batch of reticles w/black hairlines made in 2nd production run. I will provide a reticle with black hairline once the 2nd production run is ready to ship, which will be end first week May.
Cheers,
D.