Azimuth question

..just some things to add about the Foz. Be absolutely sure you are using a brand new battery. Old batteries may seem to work, but are best tossed. Sometimes the meter doesn't work. If that's the case, the meter has very long extensions on it that may be touching the case from within. Either tape the case or the meter connections. Enjoy.

I don't want to throw cold water on the Foz, but after reading the articles about the need to calibrate it and then noting that calibration is not exactly a simple matter, I am even more prone to stay away from it. Its accuracy depends upon the stability of the voltage from a 9V battery. First of all, I can say from having measured a number of new 9V batteries that the baseline "9V" is an approximation at best. They tend to deliver slightly more than 9V when new. Some can be at 9.2V, some at 9.4V, etc. From what I was able to glean, those tenths of a volt differences can affect calibration of the Foz. (One guy who responded to Fremer's blog noted that his Foz told him to tilt his cartridge by 15 degrees to obtain optimum crosstalk!!! Either his cartridge is grossly faulty or the Foz is way off, and odds are it's the latter.) So, it is a given that you need to calibrate every time you replace the batteries. Then there is the issue of the effect on calibration of voltage drift or corrosion on contacts or etc. I'd like it better if the battery fed a voltage regulator, but that might result in a prohibitive size for the Foz. Another option might be an outboard PS that plugs into the wall to power the Foz and delivers a well regulated constant 9VDC to it. That way, you calibrate once or at the factory, and forget it. I was surprised that Fremer documented so well the need for frequent calibration and then went on to confirm his strong endorsement. True, there is not much competition.

I have noticed that some arms need to have the ground wire connected to get an accurate reading, others don't. Perhaps the guy with the 15 degree error had his ground disconnected.

The better way to go is the Feikert Adjust program. I have used the Fozgometer and I now own the Feikert. Besides being much more reliable it is much more accurate. Add to that it can be used to check speed and frequency response, for just a few dollars more.

This of course, just my opinion.

Lewm, whenever someone recommends the Fozgometer...
You seem to have a bucket of ice water at the ready. Keep up the good work, helping to protect gullible (or incompetent) audiophiles from getting ripped off. :-)

I hate to deflect your cold water, but if the Fozgometer was that bad I would expect to see a bunch of them for sale at discount prices. But you seldom find used Foz's for sale on eBay or Amazon or the many forum buy/sell websites. (I suspect that as the vinyl bubble subsides we'll be seeing more of them. But I also expect to see a bunch of turntables, cartridges, phono stages, RCMs, setup tools, and records for sale as well.)

That aside, Mr. Fremer said he got the same results with the Fozgometer as with the digital oscilloscope. That's good. No?

Regards,
Tom