Is this Cartridge Alignment good?
- Thread starter rogerrrr
- Start date
trick cyclist
pfm Member
Made oi larf!
Tony L
Administrator
That Grado certainly looks off! It looks like the wood body is misaligned rather than the cantilever being off to one side in the generator, so I guess that one could be corrected to some degree in alignment.
PS Azimuth is a big deal too and can give the impression a cantilever is offset to one side as the whole cart is positioned out of true. Hard to sight with some curved or non-square cart bodies. I have certainly seen this in the wild, and sometimes on decks or arms that lack any ability to correct it. It’s an area I’m very picky about and spend far too long squinting at! The most obvious example I’ve ever owned myself (though I’ve seen many others) was the Linn Basik LVV on my old Ariston RD80, which was the deck I replaced my old Lenco with. The headshell on that must have been a degree or two out, but it was a dreadful arm all round, just a piece of crap really, so I replaced it with a far nicer AT1120 and went through a phase of using some of the really high compliance MMs that were being closed-out for peanuts at the time (Ortofon M25FL etc). I have certainly seen quite expensive arms/decks with quite obvious azimuth error.
PS Azimuth is a big deal too and can give the impression a cantilever is offset to one side as the whole cart is positioned out of true. Hard to sight with some curved or non-square cart bodies. I have certainly seen this in the wild, and sometimes on decks or arms that lack any ability to correct it. It’s an area I’m very picky about and spend far too long squinting at! The most obvious example I’ve ever owned myself (though I’ve seen many others) was the Linn Basik LVV on my old Ariston RD80, which was the deck I replaced my old Lenco with. The headshell on that must have been a degree or two out, but it was a dreadful arm all round, just a piece of crap really, so I replaced it with a far nicer AT1120 and went through a phase of using some of the really high compliance MMs that were being closed-out for peanuts at the time (Ortofon M25FL etc). I have certainly seen quite expensive arms/decks with quite obvious azimuth error.
Craig B
Re:trophile
Thankfully, someone had the foresight to produce a multi-purpose tool that, in addition to being used to set overhang (as well as providing a convenient spare headshell/cartridge stand), one can use to brute force none azimuth adjustable universal headshells into correct alignment (or, incorrect alignment, should one's cartridge mounting lugs have been bent out of shape by the Linn-tight crowd).
One need pinch firmly round the slot, and then only twist the headshell body whilst gripping it up close to the plug end.
NOTE: Not for classic SME headshells; not only are these always perfect, classic SME tonearms feature a built-in azimuth adjust via headshell socket rotation within the tonearm tube (via a small set screw through a short slot in the tube).
One need pinch firmly round the slot, and then only twist the headshell body whilst gripping it up close to the plug end.
NOTE: Not for classic SME headshells; not only are these always perfect, classic SME tonearms feature a built-in azimuth adjust via headshell socket rotation within the tonearm tube (via a small set screw through a short slot in the tube).
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