Will fine tune adjustments with protractor help with "brightness?"

I really doubt you can get more out of your cart with different alignment, the sound signature will not change, you'd better get a decent cartridge instead. 

Even with Technics own gauge and Technics own alignment (which is close to Stevenson) there is absolutely no problem with 10-15 different cartridges i have tried, none of them is changing sound from beggining to the end of the record like described by Brent. Maybe his ears are special :)  

The alignment will do very little with the cartridge signature sound. If it's bright for you then it's the cartridge, you could use alternative loading of your cartridge, maybe lower than 47k Ohm in this case. 

My feeling that you’re looking for problem where should be no problem.

You’re spot on with Technics overhang gauge that comes with your turntable and if you stylus is under the mark on that white plastic Technics Overhang Gauge then the alignment is correct. You have the instruction manual how to set-up this tonearm.

Technics presentation on almost every high-end show was made with $5000 ART-1000 cartridge with the same alignment on Technics tonearm.

Do you think Technics tonearm designers can’t hear what you can hear ?

I will address this question to all others, it’s a modern high-end turntable

P.S. Technics phono cable is a low capacitance cable as much as the every good phono cable on the market. There is absolutely nothing to change with this turntable for a person who just started the journey into analog. The rest is audiophilia.


I've been using Technics tonearms and Technics turntables for professional needs for over 22 years using Technics alignment. There is nothing to worry about with GR, i believe. 

@basement  I have adviced $60 Zerostat to Brent long time ago when he asked me. Cardas sweep record is a great tool, i use it to ultrasonically clean vintage cartridges (or to burn in).    

@avanti1960 maybe it’s just me with a very long experience with those Technics, but when i quickly set-up cart with Technics overhang i am spot on, it’s easy to check with protractor. But if the cantilever of the cartridge is not centered then it’s another story. Technics is not exactly Stevenson, it’s close, but different. Anyway i have tried all 3 alignments on my Dr. Feickert protractor. 

I’m just tried to say that Technics demo was made with ART-1000 and surely with their own alignment. Everybody were impressed, so i do not see any problem to use this first as supposed to be (and to experiement later with different methods).

@knollbrent

I’ve been wondering if there’s a "set up" album for about a week now. I’ve been curious regarding a few albums with the voice placement and thought how nice it would be if there was a record you could test your system to too. Would this album have this voice placement test?

I test with real music, some properly recorded LPs which i know very well, most of them are originals from the 70’s, some Japanese pressings, there are many.

To check channel balance, polarity, or to set up anti-stating i use Hi-Fi Test LP and Cardas Sweep LP. The Hi-Hi Test LP comes with free protractor, also there are tracks to check resonance frequency of your cartridge/arm combo. I do not have any test records anymore.

@hdm

It is really only in the 58-60 mm area that Stevenson excels at reduction of IGD as compared to Baerwald and Lofgren and many vinyl users (classical music lovers with lots of long sides possibly excluded) have very few records in their collection with playable inner grooves in that area.

I am not an advocate of Stevenson, but i doubt in your knowlende about record formats, i have randomly measured inner grooves on various vintage 45s (7’inch records) and the music goes up to 50mm (from the spinde) on many of them.

Japanese companies supplied radiostations with their equipment (tonearms, turntables, cartridges) back in the 60s, 70s. Denon, Saec, Technics etc ... The radio format is NOT an LP, but the singles, supplied as a promo prior to the pressing of LP, to the radio discjockeys to promote the songs. One track per side only.

This format of music media is highly collectible and millions of people have those records (45 rpm singles) as in most cases it is the ONLY way to buy a song which was never ever issued on LP. I am talking about original 45 rpm 7 inch singles from the 50s, 60s, 70s ... The groove starts at about 82mm and the song goes up to 50mm (from spinde to the inner most groove). Go figure.

This is not like on your typical LP or on that audiophile pressing that are made for small majority of people. The normal 45s were made for the masses, there are more 45s that LPs in this world for sure.

P.S. Stevenson alignment was made officially for classical music where the most complex passages tends to be in the end of the record at the inner most groove.

People who can't think of anything but a distortion should buy Linear Tracking tonearms ONLY. 

@hdm

So in your opinion Stevenson works well for classical music ?

Because the main quastion is why Stevenson made his alignment long time after Baerwald / Lofgren and why nearly all Japanese manufacturers of high-end tonearm using Stevenson till today. Do you have any explanation of this ?

It’s weird that audiophiles ignoring millions of records pressed on 45s singles on independent labels in the 50s - 70s (not available on any LPs). In fact the choise of music on expensive audiophile pressing LPs is awful (with some exceptions), which makes me think that audiophiles are about quality, not about music itself. As i said inner groove on 45s is different, that’s all i was trying to say.

At the same time the "normal" people just use what they got from the manufacturer like Technics.

I personally use different alignments, mostly Baerwald and Stevenson on different tonearms. I can’t hear distortion with Stevenson! Probably Technics engineers can’t here distortion too, also many other Japanese tonearm manufacturers can’t hear distortion with Stevenson alignment.

You statement is theoretical, but practically it is not necessary for the OP to change alignemnt on Technics turntables with Technics tonearm.

I would be happy to hear some files recorded with Steventon vs Baerwald / Lofgren to prove the audible distortion. I think it will be impossible!

I would like to point you on ViV Lab tonearm and its alignment method which has nothing to do with Stevenson, Baerwald, Lofgren etc. But no one complained about the distortion. Why?

Working on a band new Technics tonearm for GAE, G, GR and 10R models Matsushita engineers changed and improved almost everything, except the tonearm geometry as far as i know. If this geometry would cause the problem they could simply change it in the last generation of their reference class turntables. They are completely changed the entire tooling of those machines. Working on such important project in 21st century the Matsushita engineers definitely made a lot of tests. I can not believe these guys knows nothing about Baerwald/Lofgren.

Anyone can explain why the tonearm geometry of a brand new Technics tonearm is the same as it was before (very close to Stevenson) ???

Technics carefully checked every weak part of the old design to create brand new reference class turntable, do you think those guys just forgot to check the tonearm geometry after all these years ???

Do you think Technics/Matsushita engineer have no idea about Baerwald/Lofrgen ???

Anyone can prove the level of audible distortion between Baerwald and Stevenson, so we could hear it in the recordings made with the same cart, same tonearm, but with two different alignment? Why it was not done before if the level of distortion is so audible for human ears like some people thinks? Is that so difficult to prove it ?

P.S. Another question: Which japanese top class high-end tonearm has Baerwald/Lofrgen geometry ?