‘SRA’ and ‘Azimuth’ set with aid of a microscope

[jn229]

For fun I thought I would post some pictures taken well I was setting up my Styli Rake Angle. I had the SRA set fairly close then tuned by ear. These pictures were taken when rechecking the set up (don’t trust my ears?) Some of my audio buddies have been doing this lately. It surprised all of us how far off the SRA is when the tone arms are set level. One of my brother in law’s arms is set so low at the back it just clears the LP!

The pictures here are of a Grado Sonata.

[Nigel]

Apart from setting his tonearm headshell as level as possible how can the ordinary Joe optimise his stylus rake angle etc?

[sq225917]

SRA is a function of cantilever angle, hence tracking force, VTA and the way your stylus is fitted.

Your azimuth looks pretty good, still not perfect, it's past 12 a touch. nd how do you reference it anyway, is the camera on the record surface, is the deck suspended or rigid plinth?

My SME v used to just clear records, even with quite a tall cart.

[jn229]

SRA is a function of cantilever angle, hence tracking force, VTA and the way your stylus is fitted.

Your azimuth looks pretty good, still not perfect, it's past 12 a touch. nd how do you reference it anyway, is the camera on the record surface, is the deck suspended or rigid plinth?

My SME v used to just clear records, even with quite a tall cart.


I use a CD with a square notch cut out of its edge. The microscope’s horizon is then adjusted with this edge (the scope is on a tripod). Good eye with the azimuth, the styli/canrtilever or tone arm is off. The arm is a Rega 300 with no azimuth adjustment. To get this as close as it is I had to use shims at the cartridge head shell interface.


When starting this exercise I adjusted VTA, VTF and over hang so many times it became a pain in the butt. In the end I have come to believe you can not be too fussy or anal when it comes to cartridge alignment. Even small changes can be heard!

[RobbieGong]

I use a CD with a square notch cut out of its edge. The microscope’s horizon is then adjusted with this edge (the scope is on a tripod). Good eye with the azimuth, the styli/canrtilever or tone arm is off. The arm is a Rega 300 with no azimuth adjustment. To get this as close as it is I had to use shims at the cartridge head shell interface.


When starting this exercise I adjusted VTA, VTF and over hang so many times it became a pain in the butt. In the end I have come to believe you can not be too fussy or anal when it comes to cartridge alignment. Even small changes can be heard!

Yep ! definately agree, I've said this quite a few times. Worth spending good time on careful and meticulous set up because it 1. It is VERY important and
2. It will pay off. You'll hear the difference. The stylus has to sit correctly and comfortable in the groove in order to extract and portray the information in the right way, sorry to state the obvious but I think people sometimes forget just how important this is, putting more focus into other areas. The less right set up is tends to mean a degree more distortion in the playback, which will hinder everything else sounding like you would like it to. Very hard indeed to totally erradicate ALL unwanted influences, resonances, distortion etc but the more right you can get things here the better and set up is KEY to this. SRA, Azimuth, VTA etc all play their part to that regard so we leave nothing out of the equation. I shudder to think how many times someone has tried a really good cart and dismissed it as crap (Believe me I've read some stuf and thought, you what !) because he / she didn't take that bit of extra and care to really get set up right - I mean why wouldn't you considering the kind of money some of these tiny jewels cost. Case in point is the highly regarded highly polished nude shibata stylus on the Ortofon 2M Black and it's bigger brothers the Jubilee and Cadenza Black -The Shibata is renowned for digging seriously deep hence oodles of detail retrieval etc also known to be smooth and superb with texture, timbre and seperation of instruments as well as having a pretty sophisticated profile making it quite susceptible to the effects of vta. I've found all the above to be the case with my 2M Black. Set it up right (takes time and care, the fly vta on da Techie is a God send and big help towards this, turn it in while playing a tune, I mean ever ever so slowly and carefully, takes time.. ) and you will smile big time. Oh !! and dont forget to get the stylus / cart to follow arc properly, ie get a protractor somehow. On the flip side when it aint right it doesn't shine in the same way which I've also experienced - it will lack it's skill with timbre and texture, sound a bit dull and very laid back, hence I hate having to make changes with mats etc cause it means the sweetspot is lost and has to be re-discovered, a pain but worth it. I do not rest until I get it back :) Sorry for the long post guys :)

[sq225917]

Jn, cheers, I do spend 50% of my working day interrogating photographs, I have a good eye for a small margin of error. ;-) |To be honest \i doubt that that small offset has any effect!

[WOStantonCS100]

"A++" for effort! I do spend considerable time getting setup as close as possible and the arm I use now allows for almost infinite control of all parameters. Still, we're at the mercy of the vinyl pressing, leaving a lot of our best efforts and precision on the cutting room floor. So, I just go for best case scenario (if the pressing were perfectly flat and free of any deviation) and am generally rewarded with great sound (if not perfect sound). It beats listening to distortion and mistracking.

[RobbieGong]

"A++" for effort! I do spend considerable time getting setup as close as possible and the arm I use now allows for almost infinite control of all parameters. Still, we're at the mercy of the vinyl pressing, leaving a lot of our best efforts and precision on the cutting room floor. So, I just go for best case scenario (if the pressing were perfectly flat and free of any deviation) and am generally rewarded with great sound (if not perfect sound). It beats listening to distortion and mistracking.

Exactly Biff, Spending good time around this is good good sense and worth it. Good point re: the actual vinyl. It's so hard to get perfectly flat records even when they are 'flat' you often still notice the slight up and down buts thats the nature of the plastic beast :lol: Either way proper set will mean less distortion and mistracking as you've pointed out regardless :)

[AlexM]

I have one of those x400 USB microscopes somewhere... must give this a try!

Alex