I wanted to try an Orsonic headshell with azimuth adjustment for a long, long time. It was designed as anti-resonance one, was heavier than my current headshell that requires a counterweight, and looks nice. Several Orsonics have adjustable azimuth and on these AV-101 appears to be the least expensive. The problem was the manufacturer is long time out of business and NOS 'shells cost a fortune and many are counterfeited. Finally, found a used AV-101 from a US seller for a reasonable money.
On the surface, AV-101 looks exactly as a headshell with adjustable azimuth: near tonearm mount, it has a screw that tightens a collar. So, in order to adjust azimuth one should untighten that screw and rotate a collar, right? Wrong! Upon loosing that screw the headshell did not rotate relative to tonearm mount at all!
It turns out the reason was obvious: the headshell has just a flat opening for a screw with no space at its sides for rotation.
Perhaps, this particular headshell was done on Friday night 5 minutes before the end of a shift and they just forgot to do it right. Or perhaps it was not made as adjustable. Anyways, it's easy to modify that headshell for azimuth adjustment: just remove some metal from both sides of the screw position. The 'shell turned out to be made from aluminum so do this by a file took me literally 2 minutes.
Now everything works - the headshell body is rotated relatively to the mount and the screw can easily tighten the collar to fix it in the desired position. The only problem is that Orsonic is relatively heavy, 16 grams, and my homemade counterweight is barely enough. Needless to say, I don't have the original one and don't know where to get it or have it made.
How does it sound? I'm very satisfied. My old headshell was also with azimuth adjustment but this one is more revealing and instruments have better "tonal signature" - that is, a xylophone sounds exactly like one while previously is sounded well enough to SUGGEST it is a xylophone. Or the azimuth on the old'shell was wrong?
On the surface, AV-101 looks exactly as a headshell with adjustable azimuth: near tonearm mount, it has a screw that tightens a collar. So, in order to adjust azimuth one should untighten that screw and rotate a collar, right? Wrong! Upon loosing that screw the headshell did not rotate relative to tonearm mount at all!
It turns out the reason was obvious: the headshell has just a flat opening for a screw with no space at its sides for rotation.
Perhaps, this particular headshell was done on Friday night 5 minutes before the end of a shift and they just forgot to do it right. Or perhaps it was not made as adjustable. Anyways, it's easy to modify that headshell for azimuth adjustment: just remove some metal from both sides of the screw position. The 'shell turned out to be made from aluminum so do this by a file took me literally 2 minutes.
Now everything works - the headshell body is rotated relatively to the mount and the screw can easily tighten the collar to fix it in the desired position. The only problem is that Orsonic is relatively heavy, 16 grams, and my homemade counterweight is barely enough. Needless to say, I don't have the original one and don't know where to get it or have it made.
How does it sound? I'm very satisfied. My old headshell was also with azimuth adjustment but this one is more revealing and instruments have better "tonal signature" - that is, a xylophone sounds exactly like one while previously is sounded well enough to SUGGEST it is a xylophone. Or the azimuth on the old'shell was wrong?
