lorne
Sonic Lizard
Recently, I was looking back over the years and began thinking that I have been setting up turntables for a long time. But, I've never really been satisfied that I was accurate enough. I have done the geometry and mounted arms on TT's. I've played with all the settings. My first protractor I made myself by scribing lines in a junk LP record. Still, I've always been left with shadows of doubt and wondering if really I was in a darker valley of ignorance about something.
Often the hardest factor to decide on has been azimuth. And for years I was using an arm that didn't have an adjustment for it. And so it always meant peering at the stylus and wondering, do I really need to shim the cartridge? — and even wondering what I was actually seeing!
The professional opinion seems to be that the only really absolute accurate way to set up azimuth is to use electronic instruments that most of don't have, and never will have. So instead we set it by sight and then refine by ear. Well I for one have to sometimes wonder if I'm really chasing channel imbalance in the amplifier. So that means test tones and other blah blah.
About the same time as I was saying to myself to just not fret and fuss so much, I came across this little item on Banggood.com. I expect there will be some who will poo-poo the thing. And I might not disagree with what they might say. But I've decided it's a useful, very inexpensive little gadget. Reason: it's a starting point!
While being careful of parallax, you can sight the level of the head-shell, compare the position of the cartridge and hopefully get a glimpse of what the stylus is doing in relation to everything else using a loupe or some other glass.
Of course, we will not know how accurate the interior components are aligned in the cartridge. And that's why most of us will still be dialling in azimuth by ear. Still, all in all, I think this little bit of plastic gets the azimuth pretty close. And if you are changing out detachable head-shells, and using various cartridges like I do, it sure saves some time.
Often the hardest factor to decide on has been azimuth. And for years I was using an arm that didn't have an adjustment for it. And so it always meant peering at the stylus and wondering, do I really need to shim the cartridge? — and even wondering what I was actually seeing!
The professional opinion seems to be that the only really absolute accurate way to set up azimuth is to use electronic instruments that most of don't have, and never will have. So instead we set it by sight and then refine by ear. Well I for one have to sometimes wonder if I'm really chasing channel imbalance in the amplifier. So that means test tones and other blah blah.
About the same time as I was saying to myself to just not fret and fuss so much, I came across this little item on Banggood.com. I expect there will be some who will poo-poo the thing. And I might not disagree with what they might say. But I've decided it's a useful, very inexpensive little gadget. Reason: it's a starting point!
While being careful of parallax, you can sight the level of the head-shell, compare the position of the cartridge and hopefully get a glimpse of what the stylus is doing in relation to everything else using a loupe or some other glass.
Of course, we will not know how accurate the interior components are aligned in the cartridge. And that's why most of us will still be dialling in azimuth by ear. Still, all in all, I think this little bit of plastic gets the azimuth pretty close. And if you are changing out detachable head-shells, and using various cartridges like I do, it sure saves some time.
