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tonearm/cartridge set up question

I'm new to vinyl and recently got the inclination to take a closer look at my set up to see where everything was at. Upon inspection I noticed the dropped counterweight on my JMW 9 arm was slightly off center, it was rotated about the axis formed by the length of the arm when viewed from the front. I adjusted it so it now hangs straight up and down, re-checked VTF and the cartridge (cheap Grado Red) is vertical when viewed from the front now. Problem is that I now notice a slight shift in imaging and soundstage, it's off to the left of center consistantly. I verified this with identical tracks on CD.

Did I screw something up? Should my cartridge not be vertical? I was present when my dealer set up my arm/cartridge and do not remember him making adjustments for this.

Any thoughts?
dlwask

Showing 1 response by dlwask

dlwask OP
270 posts
 
Thanks for all the tips. I ended up looking more closely at the stylus rather than the cartridge body, which was a bit off. I then tried the twisting of the tonearm cable. I settled with a single twist of the cable and a slight offset in the counterweight to better align the stylus.

I think part of what I was hearing was the better (ie wider and more detailed) soundstaging of my vinyl set up over my CD player...which is a bit closed in.
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