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RE: Fremer's ZENITH ANGLE CORRECTION or have we all gone crazy.

Posted by flood2 on February 9, 2021 at 19:11:08:
The article is a thinly disguised advertisement/infomercial for the Wallytools service and assumes that perfection is possible.

There are quite a few issues to comment on in that article.

Fremer's method of setting SRA is flawed to begin with - you can't set it "accurately" statically. It must be done dynamically to factor in the effect of drag and presumes that the optimum VTF has already been determined to set the operating VTA. If the SRA doesn't match the reference VTA for the coil relationship to the groove, then simply adjusting arm height to achieve the desired SRA will simply introduce an error in the coil alignment.
Secondly, the cutting angle (as defined in the standard) is between 0 to 5 degrees with DMM set at 0 degrees so it is pointless to slavishly set 92 degrees.

As for the merits of having Wallytools tell you the correct azimuth? Well that assumes that the horizontal bearing is perfectly normal to the plinth and platter and that the set offset angle matches the horizontal bearing offset for the arm. The arm height must be set correctly (i.e parallel to the record for the pre-determined Wally Azimuth to be valid. However, if you are going to adjust the arm height to "fix" a perceived SRA issue, then you will simply introduce an azimuth error. This is the reason that adjusting arm height in miniscule amounts results in an audible difference - multiple parameters are changing simultaneously including azimuth, offset and overhang with the resultant change to skating force. It is not simply due to the tiny change in angle which is inconsequential with respect to the record to record variation in cutting angle.

Lastly, whilst correct zenith IS important and the benefits are clearly audible, it is more important that the coils/motor be aligned for minimum tangential error to the groove rather than introducing an error in the generator alignment to correct any stylus zenith error.
It is all very well to have software that allows you to draw reference lines on an image to do calculations, but unless the stylus tip is perfectly normal and central in the image field, parallax will introduce errors in the calculations. The same issue applies to the measurement of tip rake angle.
The mounting tolerance for the zenith of a Shibata tip is +/- 5 degrees. You would not be successful in arguing that a zenith error of 4 degrees (as per Fremer's image, but assuming a Shibata tip) was defective since that would be argued to still be within specification. The manufacturer might replace the cartridge to maintain goodwill, but chances are zenith is almost never "perfect" if such large tolerances are allowed. A 1 degree error would be very hard to discern reliably.
If this weren't the case then a conical stylus would be unusable since the contact positions on the scanning surface are continuously shifting in a manner equivalent to a zenith error.

As it is, the tolerance for cantilever skew is (claimed to be) within 1 degree for AT and that is all but invisible given that this represents a displacement of the stylus tip of 0.1mm assuming a cantilever that lies perfectly on the centreline.

Still, I'm sure there are plenty of audiophiles with deep pockets who would happily part with their money for the Wallytools information and who believe that "perfection" could even exist for vinyl replay when in reality there is no such thing as perfection with vinyl replay given the myriad of variables involved and the effect of stacked tolerances.

To me the Wallytools service is pointless and a waste of money which is better put elsewhere. It would make more sense to send the cartridge to a retipper such as Peter Ledermann and actually FIX the problem if indeed it is determined that a problem even exists.