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Cartridge Alignment

After making a maple plinth for my Thorens TD 145, I've purchased a Grado low output Statement Sonata 1 mono and am anticipating that it will arrive soon. Anyhow, I'm trying to mount this onto a TP-16 MK 1 and as cheaply as possible (with good results). My record collection is mostly 1958-ish LP's so I recently purchased a mono test record of the same vintage from Discogs.
I also bought a small ceramic anti-static/anti-magnetic screw driver and a digital stylus force gauge. I have instructions that tell me that I need to have a pair of tweezers. And I printed out a paper templet (including instructions) for the TP-16 that includes Baerwald, Stevenson, Loefgren and Manufacturers specs. I've currently have that taped onto a record.
Any advice is welcome, especially where it pertains to the Thorens TD 145 (1974 vintage).
Best,
GF
goofyfoot

Showing 2 responses by cleeds

cleeds
6,089 posts
 
09-22-15: Billstevenson
... The MintLP alignment gauge is superior to all others because it is the only one on the market at any price that addresses the problem of parallax. It is set up for the Stevenson algorithm, however, which may or may not be the one you want.

The WallyTracktor also corrects for parallax:
http://veteranhifi.se/WVC/tools/tractor.htm

He'll make them in any alignment you like!
cleeds
6,089 posts
 
09-24-15: Goofyfoot
" ... the Grado mono I'm now using is an upgrade from the Grado ME+ mono that was on there before. My thought is that a wood cartridge body should produce less hum than a plastic cartridge body so blaming the current Grado doesn't really seem all that plausible ... I did however run a copper wire from the Thorens top plate screw to the extra black speaker terminal on my ASR Emitter II Exclusive amp but the hum is exponentially louder than it has ever been.

I'm not sure why you think a wood-body cartridge should be less prone to hum that a similar plastic-body cartridge. In any event, Grados are known to be susceptible to hum on some turntables.

As for grounding your turntable, you don't want to wire it to your amplifier's neutral speaker connection! You want to use a reliable, short, low impedance path to ground, such as the ground screw of an electric outlet, or a cold water pipe.
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