Cartridge alignment tool

@chakster, $150-$200 would be a fair price for an in-home alignment by a knowledgeable and respected setup expert using the most sophisticated measuring tools like the Audiomagik and Acoustical Systems SMARTractor.  I am big fan of the Feickert Universal protractor and own one myself, but it only aligns one parameter of the cartridge set up and not everyone has the time and expertise to optimize VTF, SRA and azimuth in conjunction with the alignment. 

chaksterm

I will repeat it again, especially for people who spend $1300 for a Protractor (???), that DR.FEICKERT cost only about 140 pounds + shipping and it has everything that we need for ANY tonearm on ANY turntable to make proper alignment of ANY cartridge ...

What's with the ALLCAPS? In any event, while the Dr. Feikert is a good tool, it's limited by the fact that its lack of a mirrored gauge prevents it from ensuring tangency at the null points. That's an essential aspect of proper phono cartridge alignment, and one of the key advantages to gauges such as the SmartTractor and the WallyTractor.

I own a few nice protractors including the DB Systems and a custom mirror one, but since I started branching out into a wider range of arm lengths and types I've taken to using the

Chpratz protractor I downloaded off Vinyl Engine and calculating my own null point pairs using the calculator on the site. I did have to carefully resize the download to get the measurements to be precise, but it wasn't difficult. The DB Systems was great for my 9" arms, but I run a couple in the 10" and 12" range now and the standard options really weren't cutting it. Even the null points from the manufacturers lit didn't work out as well as what I worked out so to say I'm happy with the system would be an understatement.

@cleeds I don’t like mirrored sufrace, i’ve tried some with white lines on mirror and it was awful, i think it was VdH protractor. I hate them. It’s absolutely no problem for me to make proper alignment of any cartridges with Dr.Feickert. I much prefer black surface with white lines on it, personally i don’t need any miror, it does not helps me at all. All i need is light and Dr.Feickert protractor. This protractor is universal for any tonearm, any turntable, any cartridge. And it has all 3 alignment method on it. 

I have a Mint LP (SOTA/FR64fx), SMARTractor, GeoDisc, and Graham alignment jig (Phantom Supreme). Really, if you have (or can make) a good visual marker for the center-of-pivot on your tonearm, and are confident in your line-of-sight accuracy, the GeoDisc has a really nice combination of: universal, reasonably accurate, extremely easy/fast, and very affordable. The simplicity is beautiful. I still use mine for a quick and dirty install; less hassle than any other method.

The MintLP has the best alignment scheme - more than any other mirrored protractor, its markings are well thought-out to make incredibly clear whether you’re dead-on perfect or just off. It even works well for cantilever alignment with big boxy bodies like Koetsu and Shelter (usually very hard to align cantilever because it’s largely occluded by the body). It can also be made for a Graham Phantom. The big flaw here is: you need one per table/arm setup, and the spindle-to-pivot distance it was printed for MUST be matched by what’s on your table. Even when you specify a P-2-S distance for a custom arm-board, the end result can easily vary by 1 mm or more. So all that precision alignment might be for naught.

The SMARTractor is definitely a cool toy, but I don’t have as much confidence visually aligning to its markings as I do with the MintLP. I hate that little "dot". It’s also very hard to align cantilevers on a boxy Koetsu/Shelter, because the alignment pipes are too damn far back. I sometimes resort to aligning by body, which is not ideal and defeats the point of a $600 protractor. The P-2-S measure feature is sweet, but it won’t help with a Graham Phantom where the center cannot be precisely discerned from top (I stick to the Graham alignment jig/tools on this arm). However the SMARTractor works brilliantly with a ClearAudio Universal, which has a little top center divot for the SMARTractor’s arm spike to fit/lock into.

The Dr. Feikert looks like a very nice package/price.