Best cartridge for very old worn vinyl
In my opinion, and this is what i heard from others, an old record are worn by very simple styli (conical/spherical) with high tracking force up to 4g. Now these records can be played with Shibata or MicroRidge profile and since groove contact area is wider for such profiles the stylus pick up information from previously untouched part of the groove walls. Simple stylus profiles missing a lot of information because of the conical/spherical contact area (very thin compared to MicroRidge, LineContact etc). When you play it again with Conical/Spherical you can only do harm to the exact same part of groove walls. But when you;re using LineContact type (or Ridge) you're using untouched part of the grooves. If the records are cleaned then you can improve playback with advanced profile, seems like you already have it. What you think ? |
With same PS distance you can use 3 different alignmet methods by moving/twisting a cartridge in the headshell slots. Feickert protractor will give you Stevenson, Baerwald or Loefgren. Read more here. With FR7 series or SPU you have to stick to the manufacturer’s method, for IKEDA it is Stevenson, you can’t twist your cartridge, because they are headshell integrated models, so any other alignment will be wrong for those types (headshell integrated models). Some protractors are made only for one specific tonearm and you can’t use them for any other tonearm. Feickert designed for any tonearm, you can use it on any turntable and any tonearm and it's up to you which alignment method you want to use (Stevenson, Baerwald or Lofgren). The Dennesen is a protractor, not alignment, the alignment is Baerwald Denessen U.S.patent number 4,295,277 cites Baerwald (not Stevenson) |
Yes, Feickert is good to have for any situation. First lock the PS distance recommended by tonearm manufacturer, then you will see that your FR7 or SPU will reach Stevenson point (step-1), for the step-2,3 you can rotate the protractor on the platter if needed. Baerwald alignment does not work for headshell integrated cartridges like FR-7 and SPU on Fidelity-Research tonearms. |
You can’t adjust overhang on cartridges like SPU or FR7 series, because they are headshell integrated (as one piece). The overhang is fixed by the manufacturer and you can;t altering the stylus position without altering PS of your arm. Pivot to Spindle distance is given by the tonearm manufacturer and it must be exactly as the manufacturer suggested (it’s in the manual for each tonearm). But Fidelity-Research is the manufacturer of both (tonearm and cartridge), when your PS is correct your stylus position is also spot on (and you don’t have to adjust anything else), but only for ONE alignment method chosed by the manufacturer. Ikeda designed his arm and his cartridges using Stevenson alignment (just like the majority of the Japanese manufacturers). The difference between Stevenson and any other alignments is null points. Since the arm is not Linear Tracking there are only two ideal points across the record surface for your stylus, the rest is off. When you will buy Linear Tracking tonearm the stylus is always spot on across the whole record. For pivoted tonearms there are only two null points, and the difference between alignment methods is where they are on the record surface. If you are using conventional cartridge and headshell with slots then you can re-align any cartridge for any geometry (Baerwald, Stevenson, Lofgren or whatever) without altering the PS, you will have to twist your cartridge in the headshell, overhand will be different too for different alignment methods. |
FR7fc has a conical tip and this tip profile is less sensitive to the adjustment, this is the one and only benefit of a conical tip :) When all other profiles are a bit off the alignment, it will be irrelevant for a conical tip. If one of your FR7 has longer cantilever than others then one of them is probably not the original (but a re-cantilevered version). Because they are all designed for FR tonearms first and you know PS of the FR arms. When FR cartridge is off with correct PS on FR arm then it is a bad sign (the cartridge has fake cantilever). You’d better check everything again slowly to make sure. When you align any cartridge with one point protractor then you have to alight the cantilever, not only stylus tip position. You can reach the point with your stylus, but a cantilever and the hole cartridge will be certain degree off the lines. If you will change PS distance to reach the required point with the stylus then you will notice another problem soon, the problem is that a cartridge position (and cantilever position) is not parallel to the lines on protractor. You can fix it only with conventional cartridge on conventional headshell with slots. |
It is solved not on alignment tool for headshell integrated cartridges like FR/SPU, but with correct PS distance by tonearm designer if you're using FR cart on FR tonearm. On Feickert you can only verify Stevenson point for those FR/SPU headshell integrated if you're using them just like the manufacturer suggested to you them. For the rest of the cartridges you can adjust everything and altering the alignment by choosing the one you like (Baerwald, Stevenson or Lofgren). BTW some headshell integrated cartridges like old Dynavector and Technics EPC100c or 205c are adjustable, overhang and azimuth are adjustable, but you can't swist the cartridge anyway. |
