Avonessence
Hiking Consistency Rapporteur
That's where I recognise the design from, lol
Is this the best tonearm in the world?
- Thread starter GT
- Start date
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Well, maybe not perfect but lowering the cart. onto a roughly record thick mirror placed on the platter gives a pretty fair idea of azimuth accuracy. Depending on the wand shape, measuring two points as far apart as poss., platter to arm wand underside should show horizontal within a mm. Obv. easier and more accurate with a 12" or 10.5" arm.
sonddek
Trade: SUPATRAC
i wonder if Beobloke used that method while I wasn't watching to ascertain that my cartridge wasn't right, or a less reliable method. I find judging against the flatness of a record is tricky because the curved record edge can introduce an optical illusion which makes dead reckoning unreliable. Sometimes I try to do it by listening but that can give surprising results too.
You can buy perspex block alignment gauges which makes setting VTA and HTA a doddle. I've been using them for over 20 years when they first started becoming available. They are one of my primary tools in my TT set up procedure...
sonddek
Trade: SUPATRAC
Thanks Tony - just ordered. It's the kind of fusspot paraphernalia that I hate and always lose in a cupboard somewhere, but since people are now publicly questioning my set up at shows I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get nerdier.
I'm still a bit bothered by seeing this in the Science Museum:
I'm still a bit bothered by seeing this in the Science Museum:
Beobloke
pfm Member
sonddek
Trade: SUPATRAC
Fortunately I'm not allowed to argue in my spare time ;-)
sonddek
Trade: SUPATRAC
A customer tells me that he may be changing his plan to run his Blackbird as a second (mono) arm alongside his Schröder Reference.
As I said years ago, I'm interested to compare my contraption with the best that can be found. The recent attentions of a certain Mr Fremer suggest that those comparisons could bring surprises.
The Schröder crane and the Blackbird crossed paths at the Berlin Audio Meeting in 2022. I hope that next time that happens an earnest a/b comparison is possible and publishable.
As I said years ago, I'm interested to compare my contraption with the best that can be found. The recent attentions of a certain Mr Fremer suggest that those comparisons could bring surprises.
The Schröder crane and the Blackbird crossed paths at the Berlin Audio Meeting in 2022. I hope that next time that happens an earnest a/b comparison is possible and publishable.
sonddek
Trade: SUPATRAC
I remember my sculpture master questioning whether somebody would be an artist if she created a vast body of beautiful, intelligent, intricate, expressive work but kept it in a basement, never showed anybody, and destroyed it all shortly before her death. You can make stuff for yourself, but a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
A friend has just replaced his Triplanar with a 12” Blackbird.
sonddek
Trade: SUPATRAC
I would be interested in hearing more about that.
ff1d1l
pfm Member
Two criteria need to be achieved in cartridge set up:
The diamond, and its ridges if not conical, need to duplicate the cutter from the cutting lathe.
And the coils need to be optimally placed in the magnetic field.
The second is easily achieved, as the cartridge manufacturer will specify a small range of tracking tracking force, and as long as the suspension is to spec being within this should place the coils optimally.
To achieve the first azimuth, bias and tangential alignment to groove must be correct, the tail of the arm just down from horizontal, and the key procedure then is to gently adjust tracking force throughout the manufacturers range using a disc of known spatial and focus qualities. Like focusing a pair of binoculars, you move into focus, beyond, and back until you are in the sweet spot. If you can resolve spatial information optimally, all else will be ok. I hope it's obvious that what you are doing here is using downforce and cartridge suspension compliance to change the stylus angle within the groove, until it is tracking the cutter perfectly.
This is, if achieved, a substantial sonic advance over an indifferent set up.
The bad news is while this will sound optimum for many discs, thicker discs, or ones cut on a lathe of different spec will still be capable of better results. The true obsessive might therefore have mats of different thicknesses to accommodate different disc thicknesses. Nothing can be done about different lathes other than running several turntables with different optimisations. You can, however get it sounding good for most discs. Of course if you can adjust vta on the fly, as with some arms, this advice is redundant!
The diamond, and its ridges if not conical, need to duplicate the cutter from the cutting lathe.
And the coils need to be optimally placed in the magnetic field.
The second is easily achieved, as the cartridge manufacturer will specify a small range of tracking tracking force, and as long as the suspension is to spec being within this should place the coils optimally.
To achieve the first azimuth, bias and tangential alignment to groove must be correct, the tail of the arm just down from horizontal, and the key procedure then is to gently adjust tracking force throughout the manufacturers range using a disc of known spatial and focus qualities. Like focusing a pair of binoculars, you move into focus, beyond, and back until you are in the sweet spot. If you can resolve spatial information optimally, all else will be ok. I hope it's obvious that what you are doing here is using downforce and cartridge suspension compliance to change the stylus angle within the groove, until it is tracking the cutter perfectly.
This is, if achieved, a substantial sonic advance over an indifferent set up.
The bad news is while this will sound optimum for many discs, thicker discs, or ones cut on a lathe of different spec will still be capable of better results. The true obsessive might therefore have mats of different thicknesses to accommodate different disc thicknesses. Nothing can be done about different lathes other than running several turntables with different optimisations. You can, however get it sounding good for most discs. Of course if you can adjust vta on the fly, as with some arms, this advice is redundant!
