Alignment Snafu? Or?

Hi Mark,

Dan alludes to the active thread here:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1210959908&read&3&4& where you'll find several informative links.

Read this stuff and then read it again. Know that using a sight line introduces more error than it attempts to correct. I'm not arguing that you can't get "lucky" using a sight line, but we want to eliminate luck from the equation and introduce repeatability.

May I humbly comment that you don't know how good your setup can sound, and won't know until you set it up with an arc-style protractor which agrees with the pivot to spindle distance of your rig?

Know that you want to take your best shot at having a protractor to match your current pivot to spindle distance - as long as you have enough room in your headshell slots to accommodate corresponding effective length and offset angle changes.

So, if your actual p-s is 210, that's fine, as is 212. It's more important to know the distance as precisely as you can measure it. This assumes two things: (1) that you have headshell slots long enough to accommodate the new tonearm parameters, and (2) that if you mount the arm on another turntable that you replicate your current pivot to spindle distance.

Remember, the only down side of an arc style protractor is the effort you need to put into getting the pivot to spindle distance to agree with the protractor you've specified. The up side is huge however and worth the effort.

Unless you're using something like the trammel portion of a Feikert protractor, you will unlikely be able to measure your pivot to spindle distance to within .5mm.

So, try the following before you do anything else: loosen your tonearm mounting screws to see how much play you have - the ability to make fine adjustments to your pivot to spindle distance. You will likely find that you can get +/- at least .5 mm and perhaps more.

IIRC, your AQ arm mounts like a Linn, with three holes that fix a base plate in place. Know that you can enlarge these 3 holes (as well as the arm stub hole if necessary) slightly to get further fine adjustment of your pivot to spindle distance. Just remember to measure twice, and drill once.

No matter how you specify your protractor, you'll want to know what you're up against from a p-s distance perspective anyway, so you might as well know now rather than later.

Be prepared for a revelation when you get everything right.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

A quick follow-up on the Feickert protractor ...

In my above comments, I was endorsing it as a reliable (albeit expensive) means of measuring pivot to spindle distance and nothing more.

I have not played with this protractor, but people whom I trust tell me that it yields quite a different alignment from those achieved by both the Wally and Mintlp protractors (Baerwaald).

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Hi Mark,

One thing I've learned is that you can never predict the results of any change you're going to make. The changes need to be considered in the context of your complete analog ecosystem.

For example, yours (VPI in general) is one of the only cases where I've seen Sorbothene contriubite positively to the sound of a turntable. There may well be others, but I have not encountered them.

I'd be inclined to try to perform a root cause analyisis on what you like about the Sorbo - even if it's only empriically done (e.g. trying other stuff).

I'm wondering if you're responding positively to sorbothene's damping properties, or to the fact that it's sticky and holds thing in place. If you are able to answer this question, you might be able to take things to the next level (or not ... no guarantees in this blood sport).

If you decide to give aluminum a whirl, have your buddy get a quote on pricing before ordering.

Everything we buy these days is so dependent on fuel costs and prices jump around like soy beans futures these days (although in general, trending sharply upward).

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier