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I have a Dynavector 10x5 on a stock Planar 3 table. I've used Seb's Baerwald protractor to align the cart as closely as I can by eye. I still cannot get rid of the buzzing on side 1, track 8 of the Hi-Fi News
test record. By adjusting the anti-skate, I can get rid of the buzzing on the left or the right channel, but not both at once. The cartridge does OK on all the tracking tests on side 2.Is it safe to play my vinyl with this rig? The Vinyl Asylum setup guide rather ominously states that there's something wrong with my cart or arm
if I can't pass that side 1, track 8 test.
Follow Ups:
Did you check the rulers that print out on the protractor to be sure the printing is of the correct scale? I know I had to finagle with them in adobe before I could get the scale correct. I did use his baerwald for rega arms alignment yesterday with good results.
It printed out exactly to scale on the Canon inkject I used. The lines measure right.
Another better way to measure is from the center of the spindle hole to each null-point. Those are the measurements that count.
Seb's protractor will not work unless mounting distance is the standard Rega length (222mm, I think). If you did not physically verify this, go ahead and do so.Also, try another Baerwald protractor.
Hi,If I recall correctly, track 8 on side 1 is cut at 16dB, so ideally the cartridge would track this band safely to ensure that your cartridge will get through extremely modulated grooves on problematic LPs, but failing at 16dB is not a huge disaster.
Examples where highly modulated grooves can occur in conventional recordings are female vocals on opera records and solo piano.
Changing the alignment, as suggested below, won't have any effect on the trackability of your cartridge, and the suggestion that changing to an alignment which places one null radius at 60mm (according to the arbitrarily selected Rega null radii) is just a red herring. In fact with the Baerwald alignment, 2nd harmonic distortion will be lower on track 8 than it would be for the recommended Rega alignment, because the inner null radius is nearer. Furthermore, what you are hearing is not 2nd harmonic distortion arising from tracking error, it is clipping distortion caused when the stylus fails to track the groove, and has components over the full spectrum.
Things to watch out for in your set-up are that the tracking force is set correctly, and that there is nothing snagging the tonearm - such as the cueing lever. Also check that the stylus is clean and in good condition.
Beyond that, there is not much more you can do apart from trying different cartridges; however, if you can play the records in your collection without audible mistracking, then no problem!
Best regards,
You will want to use the Rega alignment guide that came with the table.I struggled trying to get my Rega arm to work with Baerwald for 2 months before someone pointed out that a Rega arm is designed around completely different null points.
This really helped get the sound ironed out. For example using Baerwald my outer groove cuts would sound superb and the inner groove cuts would sound hard, harsh and lifeless.
You can find the correct alignment null points on VinylEngine.com. Throw away the Baerwald guild if you want to maintain sanity with a Rega tonearm.
YMMV but this post comes from a great deal of trial and error analysis.
A pivotal tonearm has only two points where it will be perfectly aligned with the groove. They are called alignment null-points. Choosing where the two alignment null-points lie determines the level of tracking error distortion at all other points on the LP. Baerwald's geometry is mathematically optimized to produce lower levels of distortion at the points where maximum tracking error occurs in addition to lower average RMS distortion across the entire playing surface of the LP. This is clearly visible in the following two graphs of tonearm alignment.If we let the X-axis represent distance from the center of the LP and the Y-axis represent tracking error and tracking error distortion, Baerwald's alignment for a Rega tonearm is as follows:
The maximum points of tracking error distortion shown by the red line fall at the innermost groove, in-between the null-points and at the outermost groove. In fact, the actual amounts of distortion at these three points are displayed in the green area at the top right-hand side of the graph. Furthermore, the turquoise area in the upper left corner of the graph shows the overall level of RMS distortion for the entire alignment.
Now, let's take look at Rega's alignment. Check the average RMS distortion in the upper left corner and also check the maximum points of distortion in the upper right green area. With the exception of the innermost groove, all of these show significantly higher distortion than Baerwald's alignment. Furthermore, if we were to calculate the average RMS distortion for the inner groove area between 60-mm and 70-mm groove radii, we would find that RMS distortion in the critical inner groove area is also significantly higher for Rega's alignment than for Baerwald's alignment. As a result of placing the inner null-point coincident with the innermost groove, Rega's alignment produces higher overall distortion across the entire LP and also higher RMS distortion in the critical inner groove area.
In order to switch from Rega's alignment to Baerwald's alignment, overhang must be lengthened by about 2.3-mm and cartridge offset must be increased by about 1.4-degrees. This means that the cartridge must be moved forward in the headshell and angled slightly inward. If these changes can be successfully accomplished, Baerwald's alignment will provide better overall performance and lower overall distortion than Rega's alignment.
I'm still waiting for the missing bushing from my VTAF kit but when I looked at spindle to pivot distance at the vinyl engine it had 2 figures ranging from 220mm to 222.8. I'm wondering if I should go with the latter figure. I'm doing a prototype board now and I'm just about to mount the arm, which is cut at 222mm, will see how well I can align this with the Baerwald protractor.But I agree, it shouldn't matter what arm it is, you're just using different null points. Obviously the pivot to spindle comes into play so the carts not at some silly angle in the headshell, been there with that.
Which is why the Baerwald produced inner track distortion.John's analysis of tracking angle error is correct and spot on. However it will not always sound right when the engineering of a tonearm is designed around a different alignment scheme.
Try Rega's null points first. Then try Stephensons. I ended up using Stephensons.
The nice thing about all these various alignment schemes is that it takes only a few hours time to try the options and finalize on the one that sounds best over the entire album.
On my Rega arm, the inner tracks were a disaster with Baerwald. With my other tonearms I often prefer Baerwald to the other options.
Baerwald is a superb alignment scheme, but it did not work with my Rega arm. I did run my Rega first at slighly under 223 but ended up going to 222mm. With the Riggle VTAF and a Denon DL103R I believe Riggle recommends 224-226 because of the cartridge.
Garth about tore me to pieces for mentioning that on a post. I did find my DL 103R to sound better overall at 222mm and Garth was pleased as pie to hear me report that news!
All the old SME tonearms don't even have offset bearings and people still think the world of them.> Baerwald is a superb alignment scheme, but it did not work with my Rega arm. I did run
> my Rega first at slighly under 223 but ended up going to 222mm. With the Riggle VTAF
> and a Denon DL103R I believe Riggle recommends 224-226 because of the cartridge.What in the world are you talking about? The Rega should never be mounted at more than 222-mm and certainly not 224-226 with a DL-103R. The DL-103R has a shorter stylus-to-mounting-hole distance than most other cartridges. It is only 7.5-mm compared to the more normal distance of 9.5-mm. If anything you should shorten the mounting distance for a DL-103R.
Do you really know anything about this stuff or do you just make things up as you go??????
An optimized air bearing zero tracking error tonearm will sound ideal. A Unipivot or fixed pivot tonearm will not sound as real as a well set up zero tracking angle tonearm.Whatever the slight degree of error in any alignment scheme, it will effect different systems in unique and interesting ways.
Add to that the simple variance of the diamond stylus which is cut and polished. John you must know that two diamonds will never cut and polish in exacty the same identical way?
I am enamored with the AT440MLA. It is a very silent cartridge. However it is not dynamic nor does it plumb the deep bass lines or hit the high notes. However it gets the midrange mostly correct. This cartridge does not care one iota about a 1.4 degree difference.
However the majority of my cartridges allow me to clearly hear the difference with various alignment schemes.
Your system might or might not translate these differences. However my system does translate all these fine discriminations of vta, vtf, and alignment. I actually enjoy hearing these changes. It lets me know exactly when I am dialed in to an optimum set up.
> An optimized air bearing zero tracking error tonearm will sound ideal.I disagree!
> A Unipivot or fixed pivot tonearm will not sound as real as a well set up zero tracking angle tonearm.
I disagree again!
> Whatever the slight degree of error in any alignment scheme,
> it will effect different systems in unique and interesting ways.What can I say Tubes? For all practical purposes, I think you are wrong.
> Add to that the simple variance of the diamond stylus which is cut and polished. John you
> must know that two diamonds will never cut and polish in exacty the same identical way?Again, totally ridiculous in my opinion. I don't believe you know any facts regarding variances in diamond styli and their impact or lack of impact on the vinyl reproduction process.
There is no point in going on with this. I feel you are totally unbelievable. You can argue to your heart's content, but you have no credibility in my eyes because virtually nothing you say has any basis in fact relative to vinyl or anything else.
I checked my note book. I had the Denon at 219 mm as Pete Riggle suggested and the Grado Ref Master at 224-225 and 226.The Denon sounded best at 222 in spite of the 219 recommendation.
The Grado never sounded good on the Rega arm at all. Why I do not know. It sounded fine on the SME 3009 Series II and III arms and on my Magnepan Unitrac.
Thanks John you were right about the measurements.
However John, the Baerwald sounded aweful on the Rega and the Rega and Stephenson sounded much better in the inner cuts.
So there is more going on in a Rega tonearm than simple alignment geometry.
If you plan to use Baerwald's alignment with null-points at 66-mm and 121-mm, I would recommend mounting your tonearm at 219.5-mm so the cartridge sits more-or-less in the middle of the headshell slots. You will still need to angle the cartridge inward slightly.Good luck,
John Elison
Well, I tried Seb's Rega Stevenson arc protractor, and the result was much worse: it couldn't track the first track on side 2, and the buzzing was much worse on track 8 of side 1. Though I realize that doesn't say
anything about what results I might get with an original Rega-supplied protractor.
I like to use Linda Ronstadt's Simple Dreams album side two. "Blue Bayou" will tell you if the outer alignment works and "I want to hear it for myself" will tell you if the inner tracks are working.Simple as can be.
The test album is good for a starting point. However most of these are flawed to some sense or another.
Getting rid of the inner tracking distortion is critical. Your ears will tell you what works and what does not work.
I lost the original protractor. The one I downloaded was the Rega Baerwald protractor by Seb. There's also a Rega Stevenson protractor by Seb at VinylEngine, guess I'll try that one. And I have a
protractor on order from TurntableBasics.
The HFNRR bias tracks aren't tracking ability tests. They're intended to cause mistracking in order to give you a frame of reference for dialing-in anti-skating. The only reason there are four tracks of gradually increasing difficulty on side one is that different arm/cartridge combinations have a different threshold where the stylus begins to lose its hold on the groove.Just balance the buzz equally in both channels, put the test record away, and play some music. Fine-tune your anti-skating over time by ear if you hear any indication of mistracking. There's a good chance that you'll end up with a little too much anti-skating after using the test LP; i.e., too much stylus pressure on the outer groove (right channel), so you might hear some distortion on the left channel during difficult musical passages. If so, just back off the anti-skating a little and you'll be good to go.
BTW, what's your current VTF? You should start out with around two grams and adjust it by ear (between 1.8g and 2.2g) after the cartridge breaks in.
Sorry, forgot to mention that. I'm using the top of the range, measured with a Shure gauge. What should I listen for when adjusting it?Thank you for the info. Spinning next is The Selector: Too Much Pressure.
When adjusting VTF by ear, I listen for the best combination of energy, focus, and tonal balance. Remember that changes in VTF also effect the stylus rake angle, since adding VTF not only increases stylus pressure in the groove, it also changes the load on the cantilever's suspension.Too much VTF tends to sound lackluster, thick-tongued, and a bit bloated and inarticulate in the bass. Too little sounds lean, edgy, and nervous, and the stylus may have a tendency to mistrack during demanding musical passages.
There's no ideal setting - unless you're hopelessly neurotic enough to reset your arm for every LP - so take your time , listen to a wide variety of music, and dial-in your settings for the best overall compromise, not just in terms of sound, but with a sharp ear toward musical energy and drive.
For example, a big, powerful bass line is useless if you have to sacrifice its liveliness and articulation, so stay focused on the big picture of musical involvement and expressiveness rather than individual sonic and spatial attributes.
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