Will 7" singles sound better if cartridge is aligned differently?

In other words, is there another alignment method specific to playing 7" singles? Or does the standard 2-point method yield best results for 7" and 12" records? This is something I've always wondered about but have been too lazy to test out..

 

It is best to use the Stevenson / Technics alignment when playing 7" records because the grooves go closer to the center than with typical 12" LPs, and that's where the distortion increases rapidly with the Baerwald and Lofgren alignments.

 

Yup, I would use Stevenson.

 

Agreed Stevenson makes sense to focus on minimal inner groove distortion (since the whole record is inner grooves), but I do wonder if a 7”-specific alignment is possible, if you wanted to set a cartridge up completely disregarding anything other than 7” records? I would think it’s geometrically possible to optimize for the 7” but whether anybody has bothered to do it, considering very few people are likely playing only 7” records, I do not know. Probably not worthwhile unless you do play a lot of them and can either dedicate a turntable to them or set up a removable headshell just for them. And truthfully Stevenson is probably close enough.

 

Yes there is, with the null-points within the playing area of a 7". But I don´t thinks it´s worth the trouble, unless you have a specific TT for playing singles. I think Stevenson called it alignment C.

 

Here's a post where I calculated the alignment modification to optimize for 7" play area:

Does Anyone Re-Align Their Cart for 7" 45 rpm Play?

The cartridge has to go back in the slots 5mm and face out 5 degrees from standard Stevenson, more than most headshells can accommodate, but you can also do a partial re-alignment of both parameters equally and still improve tracking distortion.

This is mostly useful in combination with elliptical or better stylii that can also provide the best reproduction of inner grooves. It is not as critical as one might think, since the linear speed of a 45's groove is about the same as the middle 1/3 of an LP.