The UNi-Protractor: setup and pix

[Puma Cat]

After many months of waiting and some shipping snafus, I finally recevied my Uni-Protractor today.

As has been reported, the quality of the construction are excellent, with one caveat I will touch on later.

The materials are well-packed in plenty of foam with custom cutouts. Assembing the protractor fairly straightforward, with the instructions being reasonably good, but not superb. The vernier adjustment for each protractor template (e.g. each geometry or arm) is way cool, and allows very precise geometry adjustment per the needs of each protractor.

I ordered one SME V protractor, and a DIN and IEC protractor for both Baerwald and Stevenson, for a total of five protractors. The protractors are made of mirror backed acrylic, with laser etched alignment lines which are made with excellent precision with respect to the parallel and perpindicular lines. The acrylic arm that sets offset comes with a pointed tip pin, or a rounded tip pin with two reticles, one black and one white, to be used depending on the color of your arm.

Below are some pix of protractor and it's setup:
The protractor plate, arm template, and spindle plug. Each plug inserts into the arm template, but has slightly different spindle I.D. to ensure a snug fit with your spindle. This ensures precision geometry with respect to the positioning of the template.

The vernier adjuster that optimally positions the template for a specific arm or geometry.

The assembled protractor with the spindle to pivot arm and reticle.

Closeup of the reticle and arm:

As the SME has a peaked, triangular shaped bridge over the pivot point and makes it difficult to keep the adjustment arm perfectly centered over this pointed "roof", I removed it and decided to use the pointed alignment pin:

The screw here is directly over the pivot point of the arm.

Here is the pointed pivot pin being aligned with the pivot point; apologies for the motion blur, the shutter speed was low, but you get the idea. I had to spend a while ensuring the pointed tip was perfectly centered, which it is not in this pic:

And here is the final setup, which the arm/cart in position on the template, the magnifying glass in place to check the position of the stylus on the template:

The one caveat I have is the that templates are made from acrylic, and in the process of moving the stylus around on the template to get it to fit perfectly into the very small indentation that represents the perfect alignment and position of the stylus in the template, the diamond stylus scratches up the template a bit, which might make it hard to ensure that the desired stylus indentation stays perfectly intact, or that your stylus does not get caught in the template that might have a scratch on it.

I will post impressions as I get some listening in on it with this setup.

 

[Puma Cat]

Listening impressions:

Better definition and detail, imaging is better defined, including space between instruments, more solidity, but the sound is just a smooth and musical as before.

 

[Frank Sol]

Wow! That is impressive...

Thanks for the pics

 

[voltcontrol]

Oh freak*n my, that's a nice/elaborate protractor....
Great tt setup too.

 

[Puma Cat]

Thanks, Volt.

I've been playing with the UNI protractor a bit more and have figured out how better to use it. The magnifying loupe and mirrored template work really well together and are key to getting an accurate setup.

One thing I figured out today is that it is best to set the focus of the loupe lens on the template etched lines without the arm over the template first. You do this by looking through the frame and tilting the loupe forward or back until the stylus pit and the etched lines snap into focus. Ideally, you will be able to have the stylus pit and the single line that is "north" (in front) of and in line with the stylus pit both in focus. Behind the stylus pit and to either side are another series of etched lines. One function of these is to ensure that you view the cantilever perfectly straight on (no parallax error). Because there is a mirrored reflection of these etched lines, you can ensure that there is no parallax error when viewing the cantilever from perfectly straight on from the front because if you view the canti/cartridge from any other position than perfectly in front, the reflected etched lines on the sides will have their mirror images shifted to one side or another. Very well thought out.

Shown here is a view of the loupe set up, but as the camera has trouble focusing it's lens through another lens some distance away, the cartidge appears out of focus. You can sort of make out the series of etched lines, though.

Once the cartridge is put into place on template and the stylus rests in the stylus pit, you can check very easily to see if the cantilever is pefectly in line with the "north" line. The etched lines to the sides ensure you're viewing the canti from dead straight on. If the north line is in alignment with the cantilever, you're good to go as your offset is perfect as is your horizontal alignment (HTA).

Here's a pic showing as best I can the cartridge in focus through the lens. This is not exactly what your eye sees, but it gives you an idea. What you see with your eye is much clear and you can clearly see if the canti is in alignment with the north reference line.

Something that I learned from this with respect to SME arms is is that if you get the offset precisely dead-on using the Uni-protractor, the HTA (cantilever alignment) is also perfectly on.

This speaks volumes to the precision of SME arms.

 

[melofelo]

that's an amazing protractor :thmbsp: i often set up cartridges using rulers,cut masking tape and a diy plumbline string...
all based on a mounting distance with corresponding effective length and null points pre meausred and calculated...
its fairly easy if a little fiddly to do compared to your protractor...
that magnifier would definitely take the guesswork and squinting out of the final adjustments though
i often resort to looking at the cantilever through a long rolled up tube of paper pointed directly at the null point the stylus sits on..
i then tape it so it sits in line with the intersecting line of the null point...a very crude way of gauging azymuth and cantilever alignment using just he naked eye...
This device makes it look far easier to do..:yes:

 

[Miguel760]

Wow how much does a protractor like that cost? That is way cool.

 

[Puma Cat]

Bought it on a special for $650; it now sells for $750.

 

[Mr. Lin]

Now that looks like a protractor that's not messing around! I love the magnifier, I could really use something like that to set azimuth.

I don't mean to derail your thread Puma Cat, but when did you get a Koetsu Vermillion? I haven't been around this forum much lately - did I miss a review of it by chance? That's a setup I genuinely want to hear, no joke.

 

[catman]

G'day all, that's a great looking piece of gear that obviously does the job very well, but on a slightly negative note I sense that there could be a lot of potential for operator measurement error affecting the overall results and accuracy.

I think that might be the ultimate limiting factor, I suspect. In the end though, I really wonder how much better it is in practice, over careful use of a simple Baerwald two point protractor. :scratch2: Regards, Felix aka catman.

 

[voltcontrol]

I really wonder how much better it is in practice, over careful use of a simple Baerwald two point protractor. :scratch2: Regards, Felix aka catman.

For me just assessing it's features from the pics promises much more precise/'certain' setup. If the results are better or not is guesswork for us.


P.s. For me it will stay guesswork considering cost of these type of protractors, but who knows, I might just build a simple clone of one of these fellas myself.

 

[melofelo]

what i'd love to know is what device the manufacturers use to align the cartridges that they ship with their turntables..:scratch2:

 

[Mr. Lin]

what i'd love to know is what device the manufacturers use to align the cartridges that they ship with their turntables..:scratch2:

That is a great question.

 

[Puma Cat]

Now that looks like a protractor that's not messing around! I love the magnifier, I could really use something like that to set azimuth.

I don't mean to derail your thread Puma Cat, but when did you get a Koetsu Vermillion? I haven't been around this forum much lately - did I miss a review of it by chance? That's a setup I genuinely want to hear, no joke.

Hi Dave,
I got the Vermilion in March. I bought it used in immaculate shape with less than 400 hours on it from a seller on Audiogon from Perth, Australia. It arrived perfectly and safely packed fairly quickly. I paid ~$1800 for it. Had to get a Bob's Devices step-up custom made for it as it is a 0.2 mV output, but once I got that installed, I was golden.

It sounds AMAZING. Rich, yet detailed, transparent, dynamic, great bass performance, holographic imaging and soundstaging....just an incredible cartridge. Also extremely quiet in the groove. And the final tweaks of aligment really put it at a sublime level of performance. I'm done looking for cartridges.


No, you haven't missed a review, but I did post a brief thread about it back in March:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=359183&highlight=Puma+Cat

I don't hang out here much anymore, either. No disrepect intended, but my system seems to have moved to a level that doesn't seem to be aligned with the sensibilities of most folks here, so when I post about some new gear, most folks don't seem particulary interested, so I haven't been hanging out much. Been hanging out at Audio Aficionado quite a bit more, lately.