I'm about to receive my new cartridge and...

Eureka! I received my cartridge today (I'll create another thread dedicated to it) and I could install it with relative ease. It's now up and running, but now I have a question: I have the Hi-Fi News LP protractor and, using the two-point technique, I can't get both null points correctly aligned. If I align one of them, the other gets slightly (but noticeably) misaligned. Right now I made sure the inner (closer to the spindle) null point is correctly aligned since that area is more problematic distortion-wise than the outer edge. This also makes the linear offset (one point) protractor to get correct alignment as well. So I've got two correctly aligned points out of three. Do you think I must keep trying until I get both null points correctly aligned, or may the current setup be OK?

 

I can get an arc protractor alignment faster and better than any other sort. I have found have a few good magnifying glasses, good lights, and doing it at the right moment—when I am calm and have nothing pressing to do after. Anyway, the arc protractors work very well. Start at any point close to the spindle, get the stylus tip right in the middle of the line, and then swing out to the outer edge of the arc. If the stylus sits in front of the line at the outer point, move it slightly farther out on the arm (counter intuitive). If it fall behind the arc line, move it back toward the pivot. When you get it dead on the middle of the arc line at all points, the final adjustment is pretty easy. Good luck!

 

I suppose it depends on the arm and what alignment geometries it can set up in, and the alignment geometry of the protractor. I dunno about that protractor but the most common setup geometry you see is Baerwald, and not all arms -- the old Technics arms, for example, I'm told -- set up easily that way I think. Some arms are better set up with purpose built protractors, not common Baerwald protractors.