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In Reply to: Nearly any tonearm can be aligned to Baerwald's geometry.... posted by John Elison on April 13, 2007 at 08:07:20:
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.
Follow Ups:
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
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