Cartridge Alignment Protractors: Worth Buying?

I use mint protractor's . The difference between using a standard vpi protractor and the mint protractor is huge sound wise.

 

One way is to tape a piece of card stock to the bottom of the protractor long enough to extend the pointing line to as close to your pivot point as you can get.

The second, a bit more complicated, way that I like to do is to use a carpenter's laser level that I have had for many years for home repairs.* I set it up to send a vertical laser line over the spindle to the protractor and to the tone arm pivot. A bit cumbersome I admit, but it gets the job done with precision and it's not something I do very often. I have a cartridge I like and I stick with it.

Pointing accurately to the pivot makes the process crazy easy and fast and as accurate as the $600 devices.

*This sort of thing: https://www.amazon.com/Tacklife-SC-...rpenter+laser&qid=1560180284&s=gateway&sr=8-2

 

Not meaning to call you out or anything like that, but I'm always kinda surprised at posts like this, I've never heard a very big difference between the different alignments, but many report these huge differences. I wonder if people ever go back and forth between the alignments to verify that first impression. Not saying it's not real, just don't understand how it could be so profound unless the initial alignment is pretty far off. I get by using my printed arc protractors, but maybe I need to investigate it more on my end

 

I've been using a 'Cart Align' since the late 1970s and never had any problems w/tracking, inner groove distortion, etc. It may not be the perfect solution to alignment as it's Baerwald only and requires some eye work to center the protractor to the tonearm pivot but I've been shooting guns for a very long time and it's the same principal.

I also use a Fozgometer to not only adjust azimuth but to check the left-right orientation of the cantilever which I discovered quite by accident and it works. The better the cantilever alignment, the better the azimuth.

 

OP - haven't heard back since you mentioned the $5 overhang gauge as an option for the 52mm Technics overhang --- did you opt for simple? What did you choose, curious?

 

I received mine in the mail today. I checked my alignment and noticed it was slightly off (about 1 mm overhang short and about 1 mm off in alignment). I didn't expect much change - I mean, how much can 1.0 to 1.2 mm mean, right? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Much less distortion - annoying "ssssshhh" on many "S" sounds is gone. I also noticed a "cleaner" sound - meaning I could pick up better detail (on strings) and bass seemed less sloppy.

The cleaner sound may just be new toy bias, but the "sssssshhh" sounds really were eliminated.

I'll need to check the other carts I have in the stable... The generic disc I had been using either led me astray, or my Shure V15 Type III came "unaligned" on its own somehow...

 

Not necessary to print one off Vinylengine. If people can't afford, or are not willing for whatever reason to pay for an expensive protractor then this one works fine for me. It's Baerwald alignment and is plastic not paper card.
Ortofon Cartridge Alignment Protractor