@lewm Makes the most reasonable post. No other post explains the reason behind a 17.5 mm overhang. I must be missing something but this does not match any geometry for an arm with a spindle to pivot of 222 mm.
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.
Showing 4 responses by neonknight
@rauliruegas Appreciate the numbers from Vinyl Engines calculator. I used to have an account there, and then one day I could not log in. Never could reestablish access to it, nor make a new one. The arc protractor program I used was Conrad H one, as it is reported to be an acceptable one. The system only allows input of spindle to pivot and the print ratio is 1.0 What is odd is the numbers do not match up. For Lofgren B as example the overhang is 16.8 mm, but the inner and outer nulls are slightly different. 57.4 and 114.8 and an offset angle of 22.4 If the program is using the same calculations I would not expect such a variance in numbers. With what the Vinyl engine calculator shows, I think I will order an Accutrak arc protractor for this arm. |
@dover My apologies I missed your original post. Yes manual states 222mm and I do have the single point supplied alignment gauge. My preference is working with an arc protractor and wilL purchase one shortly. Thanks for the response. |