Recommendations for cartridge alignment please folks

[NRG]

Sorry Mark the "Guru" :roll eyes: protractor gets a big fat thumbs down from me. Spent a couple of hours messing with it on my Logic Gemini and Datum S arm (Rega Geometry) today. Had a good listening session and couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, something was not quite right in the treble, didn't sound crisp and defined as before, sibilance at the end of the record seemed worse. I messed about with arm height, loading and bias but was still not happy.

So I dug out my old Townshend protractor to check on the tracking distortion and found this:



OK its as best as I can do visually so the figures are not absolute but when compared to the 'Conrad' generated one the "Guru" setting is far worse especially at the end of the record. Needless to say I've gone back to the original setup and harmony has been restored!

[blake]

Sorry Mark the "Guru" :roll eyes: protractor gets a big fat thumbs down from me. Spent a couple of hours messing with it on my Logic Gemini and Datum S arm (Rega Geometry) today. Had a good listening session and couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, something was not quite right in the treble, didn't sound crisp and defined as before, sibilance at the end of the record seemed worse. I messed about with arm height, loading and bias but was still not happy.

So I dug out my old Townshend protractor to check on the tracking distortion and found this:



OK its as best as I can do visually so the figures are not absolute but when compared to the 'Conrad' generated one the "Guru" setting is far worse especially at the end of the record. Needless to say I've gone back to the original setup and harmony has been restored!

Agreed. It's a wacky alignment. Has some benefits if you have a lot of records with virtually no deadwax (the inner null point is around 6 mm from the edge of the label on a typical record-most records have no information there) but at the expense of about twice the distortion across 90% of the record compared to Baerwald.

http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.ht...t%3Dmagnequest

[Desmo]

Agreed. It's a wacky alignment. Has some benefits if you have a lot of records with virtually no deadwax (the inner null point is around 6 mm from the edge of the label on a typical record-most records have no information there) but at the expense of about twice the distortion across 90% of the record compared to Baerwald.

http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.ht...t%3Dmagnequest

Thanks guys this is all very helpful, I've always stuck with Baerwald and been happy with it, but the Guru settings looked interesting. I think I'll leave things alone and just enjoy the music! :-)

[karma67]

good choice

[HackneyRF]

Thanks guys this is all very helpful, I've always stuck with Baerwald and been happy with it, but the Guru settings looked interesting. I'll leave things alone and just enjoy the music! :-)

Amen to that! 😉

[IslandPink]

Well I have no explanation for why you got completely different results to me, but the problems you describe are exactly the ones I found to be 'fixed' by the Allen Wright( 's mate in Australia ) system. This was with a Mayware formula IV and Denon 103R . One significant thing I noticed was the antiskate setting was a lot lower.

[struth]

My one doesn't bother with all that thankfully it seems to work as Ive never had a problem

[walpurgis]

There seems to be a lot of angst and maybe even obsession over cartridge alignment. I have several protractors, but always use a simple one cut out of HFN about forty years ago and never had problems.

Same goes for downforce and anti-skating. I just start around the manufacturer's recommendations and play it by ear. It's a waste of time struggling to get to within a fraction of a gram of recommendations.

[Marco]

Ditto! "Angst", yup, that just about covers it... The ratio of 'fannying about', to listening to music, is way out of sync!

Marco.

[NRG]

Well I have no explanation for why you got completely different results to me, but the problems you describe are exactly the ones I found to be 'fixed' by the Allen Wright( 's mate in Australia ) system. This was with a Mayware formula IV and Denon 103R . One significant thing I noticed was the antiskate setting was a lot lower.

Maybe because the 103r has a spherical tip Mark so is less sensitive to setup. I think any Fine Line stylus though needs very carefull setup, that's what I've found so far certainly with the AT33PTG I'm using.....

Agree about the anti skate!