Question on FR 66s

Dear Lewm: I owned the DV-505 and its a design that I respect a lot becaus e is unique, good for Dynavector.

You are right almost all japanese tonearms came with set up specs based on Stevenson.

When I try to mount my first cartridge on it I don't put to much attention to that fact and mounted according with the protractor at hand and I have trouble because the offset angle then I was aware of Stevenson and that's how I use it for some time but I changed to Löfgren B twisting the cartridge as you said ( I don't use it the Dynavector headshell and I can't remember wich ones I used because was years ago. ) and with the XV-1 mounted in that way I achieve better results that with the Stevenson alignment and that's the way I used. Maybe I could be wrong but that passed so many years that's dificult to be sure about. Yes, that tonearm conforms as no other tonearm with Stevenson.
In all audio alternatives exist trade-offs and perhaps those trade-offs " sounds " better for me. I don't mounted MM/MI cartridges down there but only LOMC. Unfortunatelly I don't have any more to test it again.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Btw, interesting: could you link your VE post to my email?. You know I'm willing to learn always.

Thank you.

R.

Dear Raul, I have a few protractors mainly because I am still trying to find one that I really like. Personally, I like Mint protractor the best as far as ease of use, mirror surface and all. It is a lot easier to use for cartridges like Koetsu, Air Tight and Kiseki. However, now that I have 4 arms and most likely there will be more in the future, I don't want to keep buying new Mint protractor every time so I start looking around for universal protractor. I think Feickert is great and it has 3 geometries to choose but its finish make it harder for me to use on the 3 cartridges mentioned above. Clearaudio is fine but it has only one geometry with 4 IEC options. I figure since I spend all these moneys on cartridges and arms, why not experiment a bit more with various protractors if it may make a big enough difference in setting the arm/cartrige properly.
I am thinking of trying SMARTracker just because it seems that on the usability side, it is more well thought out that other protractors and seemed to be one that was really designed by end-user for user. It may not be more accurate than Feickert but at the very least, it would be more user friendly, I would guess.

If I can find it, I will. I actually attached the post explaining my observation to a thread where the OP was talking about the question of having to twist the cartridge in the headshell, when he was using some other vintage Japanese tonearm with Lofgren or Baerwald alignment. At that time, I was just starting to use my DV505 and was not so happy with the sound, using Baerwald (with the necessary "twist"). He claimed the twist caused no problem, but I then found that protractor on VE and re-aligned my cartridge using Stevenson. There was a big and obvious improvement in sound. As mentioned, this may be especially relevant to the Dynavector tonearms, because the vertical pivot is so close to the cartridge. I believe the vertical forces on the cantilever would be asymmetrical, if the cantilever and the vertical tonearm pivot are not aligned (another problem in vector algebra), and this may be the cause of the distortions I heard. Just a guess. I don't know whether the principle should be applied to all tonearms in general.

Dear Nandric,
ah good for you. You seem to be a rare exception :-)
Nevertheless my Arche headshells are working properly...
So which is your next tonearm project? Axiom for free or the Mexican stick?
Maybe you will have a beard until Raul will make an outing on his arm. Nevertheless we already collected so many words from him and as I just now realize he doesn't like to be defeated by anyone, so he must do something... or?