USB Digitil microscope advice

@ketchup

Seriously? I got exactly the same scope a few months back and this was the BEST I could get of all angles/lighting. Depth of field on the thing was about as deep as the point on your stylus. I’d BREATHE in the same cubic yard of space with the scope and it would go in and out of focus.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/196901277@N08/shares/oU62249639

 

Thanks for that, @dogberry

After some fiddling and futzing around with my cell phone (Moto 5G power, $199 from the global jungle store) camera, lighting, trying to get 4cm from the needle with a Hudson HiFi VTA scale behind getting everything into focus more or less the best I could do was get close to what Ortofon shows in the user manual is how to align the needle for best VTA. I did the “cartridge level to the record/platter” bit, then tried getting the back of the needle as perpendicular to the vertical lines on the scale as possible. Per OEM drawing.

Kept thinking at any time something was going to shift, fall or I would bump into the setup with the YUGE bulky 4 diopter LED magnifier hood I had to wear to SEE any of this up close (the heck with bifocals, when I wanna SEE something out comes the hood) and I’d be crying about paying to get something fixed I couldn’t do myself.

I’m not building Rolls Royces here, good enough is good enough.

Then I proceeded to tweak the angle a bit at a time and play a couple of tunes I THOUGHT I knew pretty well.

Thorens TD125 MkII, SME V, Ortofon Verismo and this is about as good as it gets.

The sound? Awesome. This cart brings out SO much more detail than what I’ve been using (Ortofon Cadenza Black after a Benz Micro Glider SL). Thinking this is probably the LAST high-end cartridge I buy (dealer sample, about half price).

Thanks for the input. I’ll keep looking into those cameras, next generation should improve somewhat more, they went from 2 MP to 50 MP CMOS sensors pretty quickly, new models seem to come out like seasonal locust clouds.