Originally Posted by
alphaGT
Hi Rich, good questions. Yes there is more than one alignment. But, the differences are slight. And it’s more about different Records, more so than different record players.
Basically, since the headshell on the end of the tonearm is setting at an angle to the arm, you have two points of alignment. Across the width of the record grooves the needle will be perfectly square to the grooves in two places. One, farther around the circle than the other, due to the compound angle of the headshell. The different alignments pushes these two points closer to the beginning, closer to the end, or right in the middle. It’s fairly safe that you can buy a store bought protractor and not worry about which alignment it uses, any of them will work. Unless you’re playing very old Records, or 45’s, 10” Records, or 78’s, the most popular alignment will be the best. There are names for the different alignments, I used to know them by heart, but most standard ones sold on store bought protractors will work just fine. If you ever get into long tonearms or odd Records, then you may want to study up on that stuff.
So the idea is to get the sides of the cart to Line up with the lines on the protractor. But, you may find that it’ll be perfect on one, but not so perfect on the other. The cure for this is to slide the cartridge forward or back, what is called, “overhang”, and why the mounting slots are elongated. Slide it back and forth until you find the length that makes it line up with both points best.
I like to take a magnifier and look at the needle where it meets the groove. That is what we are really trying to do. And the needle should stand straight up in the groove, but leaning forward just 3 to 5 degrees or so. Some cartridge makers will give this angle in their setup literature. But too much tracking weight can squash out the cantilever, that angle is important. Sometimes it too is listed by the maker. 22 degrees is not uncommon, cantilever to the bottom of the cartridge. And if your tonearm has a VTA adjustment, more expensive ones often do, the bottom of the cart should be somewhat parallel to the record surface. Jack the height at the pivot point up or down to achieve this. Some like it a bit higher in the rear, this can be adjusted by ear. Some needle profile types are more sensitive to this adjustment than others, lower and raise it a tiny bit until you hear it pop into focus. This last paragraph is more of my personal attention, getting your first cartridge up and running doesn’t have to be this complicated, but a glance at how the needle is actually setting in the groove is not a bad idea, a sign that things are right.
So basically, yes, use your favorite off the shelf protractor and it should work fine.
Russell