I use the Feickert software for azimuth. I had an interesting experience. A cartridge I tested showed the correct azimuth when it was literally way off from vertical. I thought I had a bad cartridge. I sent it to PL for evaluation.
According to PL, this cartridge was great and wonderful. I asked about the fact that when it was perfect vertical, one channel showed -38db and the other -29. His answer was "it is what it is" and this is very common. Another words, correct azimuth can show wide discrepancy between channels regarding crosstalk.
So, in this case, I could not follow the recommendation by the software as it told you to rotate the shell 45 degrees to have similar crosstalk numbers... |
Hi Jazzgene,
sorry, but the software never ever would recommend to twist by 45°.......
Cheers,
Chris
PS: You have mail |
Most arms are designed to dissipate and/or transfer vibrational energy so that little is reflected back to the cartridge. The first step in that transfer is the interface between the cartridge and the headshell. Spacers would probably reduce the effectiveness of that transfer. So, once again we are talking about tradeoffs if shims or other spacers are used for azimuth correction. |
Thom is correct. Optimizing azimuth for any particular cartridge requires a MUCH finer adjustment than 0.5 degree, at least 10X finer I'd say. I don't believe any set of differential shims you could easily buy would provide the necessary precision, except by dumb luck. Despair not. As Thom suggested, rather than inserting shims beneath each cartridge screw, try running one skinny shim longitudinally down the center of the cartridge. A ~2mm wide strip of thin tape works well. Adjusting the mounting screws "rocks" the cartridge L or R as needed, and provides an almost infinitely small range of adjustments. (If your cartridge is really off, use two layers of tape.) Credit to Wally Malewicz. You can see a photo here. This works. |
Dear Jazzgene, The primary objective in adjusting azimuth, if you are using electrical criteria and based on my reading of two long treatises on the subject (see below), is to get the best possible numbers for each channel, but not necessarily to expect that the crosstalk will be EQUAL in both channels. So, if the cartridge in question gives -38db and -29db, respectively for the two channels, these in fact are very good numbers based on the 4 or 5 cartridges I personally have measured using the Signet Cartridge Analyzer and a test LP using the 1kHz test tone. It may well be that soundstaging is very good at this setting. However, with a little tweaking of azimuth, you may be able to get a bit less crosstalk in the channel that reads -29db, and this may result in a little more crosstalk in the other channel, which will bring them closer to equal, but equal is not the goal. (In fact, crosstalk might go either way in the "good" channel if you adjust the "less good" channel to get a better number.) In the end, after you make an adjustment based on electrical measurements, you have to listen and decide for yourself what compromise is best. If you go to Vinyl Asylum, do a search on "azimuth" and look for the long posts by Brian Kearns and Victor Khomenko, respectively. Those two guys are my gurus on this subject. |
Dear Psag: +++++ " Would appreciate it if anyone could comment on the pros and cons of this design decision. " +++++
IMHO there is no single pro about. From a stand point of tonearm design one main tonearm target is to permit/accept the right cartridge set-up, a today tonearm that don't permit the right cartridge set-up can't honor the tonearm name.
All this tonearm customers/owners could think that they are hearing almost the best of the cartridges they mount on that tonearm but the reality is that they are far away from what is each one real quality cartridge performance in that tonearm.
IMHO there is no valid excuse to design a tonearm with out azymuth adjustment and I belive this does not matters if the tonearm price is low or high: it is by design principle, period.
The azymuth tonearm control subject is something like a car where you can drive it if you never want to turn to the right ( because in that car you can't. ), no one buy a car that only turn around the left!!!! ( a dramatization. )
I hate to talk about this kind of topics because IMHO there is ( one way or the other ) a total scorn to the un-knoledge customer and due to this non customer know-how an audio item designer/builder ( like that tonearm in this case ) makes money against the true audio customer necessities ( what we need. ), again: no excuse for that especially at that price!!!!
Btw, the subject of soundstage/focus ( as important as is. ) that " suffer " through a wrong cartridge azymuth set-up is not so important like both frequency extremes that " suffer " more ( and alter the whole tonal balance and increment distortions/colorations. ) because a wrong azymuth set-up preclude the tuneful bass range and the transparency on the highs ( between other things. ). If with some recordings your bass is not tight or comes with a high bass overhang then could be a wrong azymuth set up.
The azymut cartridge set-up is the difference between a very good performance and a great one and you can't enjoy this last till you can have the right cartridge set-up!!!!
Today I don't buy a tonearm with out cartridge azymuth control mechanism.
Btw too and like all posted here the " solutions/help " to non-azymuth tonearm mechanism like shims/spacers and the like these " medicines " are worst than the illness.
Dear friends an Aspirine does not heal/cure a Cancer.
Some one posted ( and I agree with ): change your tonearm!!!!
Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul. |
Lewm is right. Correct azimuth is in the very first an optimized geometrical position of the polished areas (NOT the mere stylus...) of your stylus vis-a-vis the two walls of the record groove. Lets further assume, that hardly any cartridge on earth is blessed with two identical coils giving identical output millivolts. This leads to the cruel thought that "optimizing" the electrical figure "crosstalk", without determining the individual electrical output of each coil first, might not necessary give the geometrical correct position.
As tempting as computer-analysis may be (and we all (me too...) are long used to computer-generated convenience in many respects of our everyday life .... and even more to come..), it does not necessary give the correct result in adjusting phono cartridge azimuth on a electrical basis.
Here once again we have to "walk the distance" and should by all means trust that biological yet fairly complex device inside our brain - the hearing.
Take a purely acoustical recording - old Opus3 records do work marvels here... - with a solo voice accompanied by solo instrument with resonance corpus (a guitar, bass, piano - you name it).
You will hear it when azimuth locks in. |
Dear Dougdeacon, - nice link. It works very well indeed. It does not cure the cancer either, but it surely will prolong life and restore its level ( of performance ) into the high 90 percentage. |
.. trust that biological yet fairly complex device inside our brain - the hearing. The Danger Zone. |
For clarity, I think we all agree that shimming is sub-optimal. The method Thom and I described and the link I posted are a band-aid for a problem that shouldn't exist, at least not on pricey tonearms. Shimming works for azimuth but it also has sonic side effects in at least two areas:
MOUNTING RIGIDITY
The more rigid the coupling between cartridge and headshell, the more accurately cantilever movements are translated into electrical signals. Looseness in the cartridge mount slurs transient responses, reduces amplitudes, adds overhang to every note and raises the sound floor - slop, slop, slop.
The solution is self-evident: if you must shim for azimuth, use a rigid, non-compliant material.
ENERGY TRANSMISSION
As Larryi already described.
The precise sonic effects of altering energy transmission between cartridge and headshell will vary with individual components. Nevertheless, inserting two new material interfaces increases the frequencies that will be reflected back into the cartridge. That necessarily raises the sound floor.
Shimming's a reasonable band-aid, that's all.
And what Syntax posted! ;-)
|
The Danger Zone... so true... arrggghhh!
Interesting about shimming because Yip of the Mint LP Tractor has the following in his "best tips for customers (down the page a bit):
http://mintlp.com/best/bestips.htm
:) listening,
Ed |
Istanbulu,
Your link to the Mint site raises another consideration -- whether azimuth should be set to optimize electrical performance or to physically align the stylus perpendicular to the record surface. Imperfections built into the alignment of the stylus with the generating element of the cartridge may mean that both cannot be optimized at one setting.
I personally align my cartridge optically, as per the Mint site because I am more concerned with minimizing wear/damage to the stylus and to my records than getting the last iota of performance out of a cartridge. I use a pair of high quality magnifying glasses for that purpose. |
Dear Larry: IMHO the best way to " minimizing wear/damage to the stylus and to my records " is not hear/touch it ( kidding. ). The life is to short like not full enjoy your records because that trade off, at least for me.
regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Listen to Doug and Raul, and while you're at it, learn to play a musical instrument or to sing. This will help you to trust the most important component in your hi-fi system - the "ear-brain"
I spend more time in my conversations with customers on this topic of musical appreciation and how you approach setting up your system.
Most mainstream dealers/manufacturers would pose the following question to you: "who are you going to trust - the reviewers (and the specs) or your lying ears?".
I vote for training your "lying ears".
Take some basic music lessons. For the price of an interconnect, you can buy a keyboard or an imported guitar. A harmonica is even cheaper.
This will open up entire new worlds of musical enjoyment as you learn to understand how musical patterns unfold.
This azimuth thread is a prime example of my experiences of demonstrating azimuth setting to customers.
I'll demonstrate the process using a mono Ella Fitzgerald record. One particular cut I use is her version of "I Love Paris".
When everything is dialed in right, the distortion drops away, the bandwidth increases, AND her body takes on a robust, 3-D image - instead of sounding like an isolated cardboard cutout in space.
There's a sudden physicality in the performance when everything snaps into focus.
Some folks I demonstrate this to get it immediately.
Others (poor souls), notice an increase in surface noise, and think that the setting is off.
Guess what? You're picking up the noise from both groove walls, and yes ... a correct azimuth setting is ultimately about getting the stylus aligned orthogonally with the record.
The technical treatment of azimuth by Victor Khomenko is absolutely correct, and I even link to one of his Vinyl Asylum threads in the Tri-Planar section of my forum, but I'm having doubts about leaving that link in place.
Drawing attention to the theory runs the risk of taking people's focus away from what they're trying to accomplish. It serves those of us who are technically inclined, but most people begin to trust themselves and their ears less.
In your hi-fi travels, if you listen with musical values, you'll be a happy boy.
If you listen like an audiophile, you're doomed to misery.
You get to choose.
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier |
One key problem of our present day existence as an audiophile and/or listener of recorded and reproduced music is, that throughout our life from early childhood onwards we are told and educated to trust our eyes only and to believe what is "written black on white".
The ear is our very first sense (working long before we leave our mothers body), but we are trained to mistrust our hearing and a huge majority of audiophiles in the western hemisphere have a very strong tendency to rather believe in written articles about 2nd hand listening experiences of others than trust their very own ears.
You are not doomed to misery, if you listen like an audiophile.
But you are certainly doomed to misery if you read like an audiophile and if you mistake reading for hearing.
Listening like an audiophile can be delighting and enjoyable, but it is VERY hard and will hardly ever leave you in an elevated nor completely satisfied state of mind for more than a few moments.
Listening to recorded music is one of the very few truly revolutionary inventions of the past century and has enriched the lives of most people.
The beauty in music does not need any audiophile attitude.
To enjoy the mere beauty of sound and the pure sensation of realistic sound puts you on an endless journey.
Its then up to each where to draw the line and to choose the individual position.
It however can be a very enjoyable journey and once you clearly see the mountain top, the last steps are very clear and quite easy.
Happy new year 2010........ |
