Alignment Snafu? Or?

Mark,

Another suggestion: try installing your cartridge without the finger lift. The extra hardware and material boundaries make your cartridge less stable in the headshell and alter the resonance behavior of the cart/arm. I can't guarantee this ecology change (as Thom put it) will be an improvement, but I can guarantee you'll hear some differences. I'd bet in favor of leaving the lift off, but you can be the judge of that when you listen.

Doug

Hello Doug, thank you for chiming in, and it's good to see you back here posting some!

Was I'm sure hard for some of us folks "holding up the fort" so to speak, in your absence!

I will probably do as you wisely suggest, and remove, and put away the little Arm lift, as you once suggested to me to do many months ago. When Ken ships the new protractor, and I again check all parameters, and I will at that time remove the finger lift for good.

As you mentioned to me once, Frank Shroder leaves em off a $6K Arm, and there may be very good reason, due to sonic detriment, rather than also the obvious mechanical one that I had an issue with.

I'm generally not a guy who constantly lifts an Arm from track to track anymore, preferring to let an entire side play through. Thanks Doug/All Mark

Hello

I just purchased a wally tractor universal. On it is an arc for rega arms with an effective length of 239 mm. I have an origin live arm, the OL specs are spindle to pivot distance 223 mm and overhang 17.24 mm, effective length 240 mm. Being a newby do I then shoot for a spindle to pivot distance of 222 mm and use the 239 mm arc or aim for 223 mm P-S and use the 239 mm or another (241mm) arc?

Thanks

Ted,

You're more likely to be able to align a cartridge at the Baerwald points on an OL arm if you mount the arm somewhat closer than the specified 223mm. The problem with 223mm is that, (i) Rega/OL arms were not designed for Baerwald and, (ii) at OL's specified 223mm mounting distance most cartridges will be very near the ends of the headshell slots and some won't align properly even when slid all the way forward.

Here's what I'd do:

1. Mount the arm at 222 (the Rega-specified distance, which is presumably what Wally scribed his Rega arc for);

2. Mount the cartridge and see if you can get the stylus to hit the arc at all points by moving the cartridge forward or back in the headshell;

3. If you can trace the arc, bingo. Square it up on the alignment grids and your're done.

4. If you can't trace the arc, even with the cartridge all the way forward, you'll need to choose another arc and another mounting distance.

G'luck,
Doug

Ted,

Forgot to mention. With an OL at 222m, aligning a cartridge at the Baerwald points will leave it slightly angled (inward) in the headshell. That's okay - as long as the stylus is tracing the arc and aligned on the grids.