Quote Originally Posted by user34 View Post
Kelvin,

I have the Feickart thingy and an SL1210. In my view, the Feickert guage is useless with a Technics tonearm, because the alignment is "Stevenson", which is similiar to the "rega" alignment.
i might be wrong on this, but from what i understand, the feickart is tonearm neutral, as in it can be applied to any tonearm within the pivot to spindle lengths that it can accommodate. it's just that it offers the baerwald and lofgren null points, while the technics overhang tool offers a stevenson null points. so it's more a choice of the user which set of points to use and which will sound better to him, rather than that the gauge is 'useless' with the technics arm. the arm doesn't choose the gauge, nor vice versa. the user does.

Essentially, the Stevenson arrangement is optimised for LPs with longer playing sides. I can't remember the exact radii, but Stevenson is good down to inner groove radius of 60mm, whilst Lofgrin & bauerwald are more like 66mm.
i took the following from feickert's website, where he listed instructions for the gauge.

The major goal was to find a tracking geometry that suits LPs in a perfect way. Out of a 100 records we checked the inner and outer radii and found out that the IEC recommendations of 60,325 and 146,05 mm were matched well by the large majority of records determined. After Løfgren’s equations this results in 70,2 and 116,6 mm for the Null points and a linear offset of 93,445 mm.
Older records dated back in the late 50s and early 60s sometimes have recorded grooves at down to 56 mm! Taking this into account we have calculated a second set of parameters and printed another template on the backside.
from what it claims, the lofgren null points provide for the majority of current or 'modern' records, while the points on the opposite side, the baerwald points, cater for older recordings from the 50s and 60s which cut a lot closer to the label, even down to 56mm. so i would believe that most records around today are catered for. my earlier question actually was that once i set my overhang, the arm seemed to fit into all 4 null points, while i know that the 2 sets of null points should be different in measurement.


OTOH, if you only listen to classic jazz and classical recordings, with only 15 -> 20 mins a side, the Lofgrin and Bauerwald would most likely be fine. I reverted to Stevenson, more or less, but you can, in effect have you own "custom" alignment, You just choose where you want your null tracking error points to be. With a pivoted arm, there is no "correct" alignment.
most, if not all of my LPs are pressed in the 50s and 60s; all classical jazz and vocals, but some of them really do cut it even just 1/2 a centimeter away from the label. so while they might be about 20mins a side, the grooves still take up pretty much the entire surface. also, perhaps there's no 'correct' alignment, but i believe that there should be an 'optimal' one.