"Making Mono" for checking Azimuth

Dougey Dougey Dougey. As always, your comments are always bang on. When I had the Tri, your emails helped me immensely.

May I make an observation?,..........thank you.

I have the Talea ll. On some records the sound is bang on. On others it is not. I now have sticky notes on which albums are this, and which albums are that.

Could it be that the cutting lathe, which did the master, was not perfectly lined up on some.

This hobby of ours is maddening.

I will say that half the fun of listening, is tweaking till it's perfect.

Your lucky you have Paul, all I have is red red wiiine.

Should I start saving for the Telos?.

Bifwynne....your bubble level on the head of the tonearm would give you good azimuth if and only if your stylus was manufactured properly and mounted square on the shank and square to the cartridge itself. If you have a cartridge manufactured by a trustworthy company, you could go with your method. I use a similar method..using a carpenters level holding its weight in my 2 hands and aligning the level to the tonearm head...I have a Benz LPS and trust the manufacturer.

Al, what do you think about my use of the small bubble level thingy that comes with my protractor kit? Seems to me that if the air bubble is dead center while the sylus is sitting on the record, azimuth is perfect. Am I missing something?

04-02-12: Bifwynne
Al, what do you think about my use of the small bubble level thingy that comes with my protractor kit? Seems to me that if the air bubble is dead center while the sylus is sitting on the record, azimuth is perfect. Am I missing something?

Hi Bruce,

Doug is the expert on that sort of thing, so it would be best to await his answer. Stringreen's response seems logical, but I have no particular feel for how much variation is typically encountered from cartridge to cartridge (between identical models as well as between different models) in how precisely the stylus, cantilever, and generator mechanisms are aligned relative to the cartridge body. Also, of course, that methodology presumes that the turntable has been adjusted such that the platter is perfectly level, as it should be.

Best regards,
-- Al

Very simple to do with Graham AZ-1 Azimuth Adjusting System. Use with monophonic record to determine the optimum azimuth position for the stylus tip. Works perfect.