If you want to get rid of the uncertainty once and for all, call JR at Wally Tools, get your cart analyzed and get the tool kit.
It’s not cheap, but any other method is merely an estimate.
Feel Silly Asking This Question Alignment Parameters
I feel silly asking this question, but here it goes. Most of the arms I have owned over the years have came with proprietary protractors, and certain ones like the SME are really just overhang gauges. For other ones I have bought custom generated arc protractors for the specific arm. I will probably do so again with this Origin Live arm. However in the mean time i decided to set up using their provided protractor.
When I went to install a cartridge on the table, I found I was not wild about using their protractor, so I decided to generate a Conrad H arc protractor till I made an order for an Accutrak one. What I found odd is that Lofgren A had the longest overhang at 16.8 mm and Lofgren B at 16.3mm. The Origin Live shows 17.5 mm. Is the Rega type alignment that much different than Lofgren or Stevenson? I also noticed with the OL alignment that cartridge offset in the headshell was noticeably greater.
What is also noticeable is the sonics of each alignment is different. To be honest, I like the overall sound of the OL alignment, but I also have this nagging feeling that it does not track as well.
I always felt at this stage of my audio journey I knew how to align a cartridge. I have been doing it since I was in my 20's! Now I have a large degree of uncertainty of which alignment to choose, and what the implications are if i choose wrong. This arm is a long term keeper for me, so its a matter of wanting to get this set up optimized.
Any insights you might pass along is greatly appreciated. Do have a good chuckle at my expense as it seems that I get into these moments of self doubt, and trying to find the way out of the forest of audio can be quite comical.
@mijostyn @lewm I did set up my latest cart myself.
True statement, without microscopy analysis. The analysis gives you the data to account for azimuth, SRA and zenith errors and the tools and a custom shim to correct them, as well as tonearm adjustment and anti-skating. PS. 2 of the 3 main suppliers of stylus/cantilever assemblies publish zenith error tolerances of +/- 5%. |
I could not agree more. I went all in with analysis, tools and support from JR for a new TT and Cart (maybe end game). At this level you really are wasting money without WAM.
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