The best way to align azimuth without a guide

Here is my simplified alignment after many years of experience.

Do away with guides and protractors.

Lift and move your tonearm over the third or second to last track, abot 3/5ths of the way into the record and eyeball right angles of the front of the cartridge to the blank spaces between the third or second to last track. You can use the clearly visable blank groves to turn the cartridge left or right in the headshell to create right angles with the grooves.

These final grooves on a record, roughly 3/5ths of the way into a record, I believe are the area where the alignment of a cartridge is an excellent guide for visually aligning your cartridge.

 

Can I get my name changed from "forum resident" to "forum retiree?"

 

Daniel Clowes - Wikipedia »


https://www.amazon.com/Pussey-Daniel-Clowes/dp/1560971835

 

OK, but why are these grooves better than ones closer to the outer edge of a record?

 

Very interesting. Thanx. I think this is the method the guy who fitted my cart used. I just watched. The result was ACE.

And how does this visual alignment look compared a protractor afterwards; close enough ?

 

I zoom all the way in with my smart phone camera while a record is playing. My LED light is shining on the stylus. This creates a pretty good mirror image. I then view the image in Windows 'straighten' tool (on it's image viewer). It has a nice grid and I adjust the azimuth until the cart and the mirror image of the cart are parallel. Only works if your cantilever is aligned properly within the cartridge though.

 

I'm gonna try that position on an LP Ghostworld, thanks.

For those that don't have an arm with azimuth adjustment, here's how I do it on a Rega based arm:

With a very sharp knife & ruler, cut a thin strip about 2-3mm wide through several layers of post-it paper (at the sticky edge) & the length of the cartridge top. Use the bottom sticky surface to place this strip centrally between the headshell & cart, running front-back. You can now subtly adjust azimuth by gently loosening/tightening the cartridge mounting screws (carefully & not affecting alignment).

 

...& another thing. Has anyone else ever noticed that even after setting azimuth as accurately as possible, you still have LPs that sound as if it isn't?

I've had a close look at a few of these and concluded that even a slight warp or thickening/thinning of the vinyl during pressing/cooling creates a surface that is no longer completely parallel to your perfectly vertical stylus. Sometimes it's just in one place - short of adjusting every time - just live with it!

 

Another reason for sticking with conical.


Comes with the trade. Welcome to the imperfect world of vinyl reproduction !

 

I just make sure the naked platter is level in both directions and then adjust the azimuth till my headshell bubble level shows 0 or center if you will then recheck vtf on cart with a digital scale, when both are as close to nominal as possible, i throw a record on and adjust vta to the record. Seems to my ears to work, of course overhang and protractor settings must be pre done before even starting azimuth settings. I only have experience on the free floating arm of VPI have never set up the gimbal trapped type arms. Probably a different approach is necessary for those arms.

 

Unless you're dealing with a DJ type of deck which uses a short and straight tone arm, I was under the impression that the head-shell is already angled correctly for tracking an LP properly. That just leaves over-hang and making sure the cartridge is sitting square in the head-shell assy.

Though I've used alignment protractors a couple of times, I don't think it's a make or break issue if a cart. is set without one. I've done it many times.

I know there are others who disagree but I've never felt I had a lack of SQ. As a disclaimer, I realize being more precise by using a guide would certainly make the process just that, more precise.

I've also taken a small bubble line-level, and after setting the counter weight for the added weight of the level, I set the level on top of the head-shell so that the stylus sits on the LP with the proper VTF and make sure the bubble is centered which should mean that the head-shell and cartridge is parallel to the LP and the stylus is tracking at the intended angle.

I'm sure this process sounds barbarack to many. I didn't get the nick name Butch for nothing.

 

Setting the azimuth on my table yesterday had thrown me into a depression. It's a pain. Plus, I don't know if I did it correctly.

 

Besides how it looks, I use an unworn, true mono cut LP (a vintage Sinatra WHERE ARE YOU? I got sealed) and adjust for the most solid, centered image when the signal is left in stereo vs setting the preamp to mono.