A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 44211 times.

jostber

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 351
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #40 on: 13 Jun 2017, 01:32 am »
http://www.audiophilia.com/features/cartridge_setup.htm

Superbly helpful article...merits as a sticky for reference at all times.  A good review for basics for even experienced vinyl-istas  :thumb:

Seems like the site was moved to here:

http://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2016/1/17/a-beginners-guide-to-cartridge-setup


jostber

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 351
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #41 on: 13 Jun 2017, 01:33 am »
Another one with a lot of info:

http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/ttadjust.html


dalton

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 21
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #42 on: 13 Jul 2020, 02:59 pm »
I've been working on a printable template to take the pain out of (repeatable) cartridge setup. My reference is a Teres 255 table with an Origin Live tonearm. It relies on Doug Deacon's ear for Pivot-to-Spindle length (for an Origin Live arm), and John Elison's Baerwald Alignment spreadsheet for the rest of the mathematical calculations.


Letitroll98

  • Volunteer
  • Posts: 5583
  • Too loud is just right
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #43 on: 14 Jul 2020, 11:44 am »
Not to rain on your parade, but the work has already been done.  The link was posted on the first page of this thread, here it is again.  http://www.conradhoffman.com/chsw.htm

escoffee

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 3
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #44 on: 21 Sep 2020, 06:35 pm »
Great information in this thread. new member and found it very helpful.

TABARD

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 36
    • TemaadAudio
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #45 on: 27 Jul 2021, 01:40 am »
Hi, I will 2nd that & have used Conrad's alignment gauge on many cartridges over there last few years .  The great thing is it gives the user a choice of 3 different alignment methods and it's FREE.

Cheers Derek
« Last Edit: 18 Oct 2021, 05:21 am by TABARD »

Letitroll98

  • Volunteer
  • Posts: 5583
  • Too loud is just right
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #46 on: 27 Jul 2021, 11:02 am »
And if you hit the customize button there's actually an infinite number of alignments.  Most everyone should stick to one of the three standard alignments, but when I was heavily into vinyl we messed around with various parameters.  The lead in and run positions are very arbitrary and have changed dramatically on newer high fidelity recordings.  Conrad is a great guy, I don't know what we'll do if he leaves us, and his site offers all kinds of free calculators and good info.

nlitworld

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 1974
  • Strange things are afoot at the Circle K
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup
« Reply #47 on: 24 Sep 2022, 03:25 pm »
So for about a year and a half now I thought my turntable sounded really good. My phono stage $ is not on par with my cartridge $$$, but it was pleasing so I spent elsewhere to upgrade and chalked up any lacking in the system to that. My turntable is the Schiit Sol which is quite good sounding, has enough adjustments to make your head spin, and definitely responds to some tweaks to make the user experience even better. When I first set up the table, I spent a good 3 hours making sure everything was right. Cartridge was aligned, VTA was good, bought a little digital scale for tracking force, etc. As I kept tweaking and getting better sound I focused on the phono stage being my bottleneck. On a whim, I decided to get a usb microscope to make sure my VTA was on point. From the photos I took during my setup before, it was damn near on at the recommended 20° but I wanted to make sure. When I hooked up the microscope, I found I was pretty damn close at 18.2°. Not bad for eyeballing with a phone camera. In reality, the joke was on me. As I dropped the needle after adjusting the vta to the correct 20°, I realized the MASSIVE error of my ways. Everything I thought was a flaw in my system was a flaw in my turntable setup. The bass muddyness cleared up, detail and separation were more complete, the depth of soundstage so much more palpable. It's quite embarrassing and somewhat comical at how using a $20 tool used for 10 minutes could benefit my stereo so much to bring out the music properly. As I'm typing this, I'm just giggling to myself how incredible this sounds. I will never again make the mistake of a "looks good enough" setup. Now, back to the music!