Stylus Rake Angle

Dear Dougdeacon: I remember very clear when I was hosted at your place enjoying MUSIC and knowing both of you love for MUSIC and accurate ears ( my sincere regards for both of you. ).

++++ " I find this harder to hear than timing errors in fundamental vs. harmonics, but Paul finds it easier. " ++++

even that you are speculating on that " timing " I think that any one of us have their own way to to " kill the mouse ".

I'm accustom/trained to look for Dynamics at both frequency extremes looking for accuracy.
Dynamics is a word that involve almost everyhing in a reproduced sound: live or recorded, and through Dynamics evaluation in a recording transient response is critical as is critical each one overall knowledge level and audio system kind of resolution.

I think that all we know the importance to have the " precise " SRA set up.

I want to insist again thet OVERHANG is even more critical than SRA for a better quality performance. If we don't care about Overhang changes when VTA/SRA changes or VTF changes then where we leave the cartridge/tonearm accurate alignment where we invested on several protractors and choosed a specific alignment only to have a precise/accurate set up that we all always are looking for?!!!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

At the end the subject is to be aware when the cartridge/tonearm overall set up is right or wrong and why.

R.

Raul, My intention was not to present my point of view as fact, but just that, my point of view in a discussion. By all means, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm speaking from my owm personal experience. I don't have instruments to measure such tiny variations in adjustment. I'm a serious tweaker who can't leave good enough alone so I'm well aware of the importance of all of the factors involved. It's just that all things being equal, sra is the most convincing variable to improvement I have so far experienced in the last 30+ years. Once I settle on sra, re-doing overhang doesn't change the sound appreciably well enough for me to notice. Could be a matter of not having the ability to make such a small adjustment on my part. I make final sra adjustments with a sheet of paper or even finer with one side of a plastic record jacket trimmed and placed under the mat. Or should I say 'removed' as I start with a few there already.

Raul, when one slides a cartridge in the headshell 0.3mm to make a very slight change in overhang because the SRA has been adjusted, how does one achieve this tiny move without rotating the cartridge about its ZENITH angle? With some stylii profiles, proper ZENITH alignment matters a lot. Of course it changes over the length of the LP and is only truly tangent at the two null points.

And, if overhang changes, does this not also require a tiny change in ZENITH so that the stylus maintains proper alignment (true tangence) at the two null points?

I did compare the alignment results between the SME protractor and my custom MINT LP arc type protractor and found that the overhang was slightly different. I can't say which is more correct, but the MINT is more accurate and allows for more precise results. I did find the music sounded better also, though this may just be that "I like it" more with the MINT.

One issue with the MINT is that the thickness of the glass is not the same as every LP thickness, so overhang is only correct with LPs that happen to be the same thickness as the glass. Overhang for other thickness LPs will necessarily be different.

If, as you contend, that overhang is more critical than SRA, what do you think about all of the people who adjust VTA for each LP without also adjusting overhang? The people with whom I have spoken feel that proper SRA is more critical than perfect overhang, so they don't bother to adjust both with each LP. Could you imagine the time involved to do both for every LP?

I'm only asking these questions to learn more about the subject. I'm very curious about how each of these adjustments effects the others and really which is the most critical. I, for one, adjust my arm and cartridge to be the best compromise with a group of my favorite and most familiar LPs. I don't have the patience to adjust settings for different LPs.

Dear Raul, Perhaps I am mistaken but was there not a time when you expressed the opinion that small errors in overhang do not make much audible difference, may not even be "important"? I thought that was your position vis a vis that of Dertonearm et al, who was arguing the opposite. If my memory is accurate, what made you change your mind by 180 degrees?