[watercourse]

Ok, so I've had my Simplex since November, and so far I've tried four carts on it, including a DV20xl, but only today after spending an hour fine-tuning the alignment of my OCLC Level 3 Soundsmithed Shelter 901 and raising the cup a tiny bit more do I think it's finally singing.

Prior to this, with the stock mat, I thought the arm was a bit truncated in the bass extension, and overdamping was more the rule than the exception. I had better sound frankly from my Audiomods arm either on the Simplex or my recently departed P5: better extension, better dynamics, and better prat. However, today the table has come into its own.

The tweaking was brought on by replacing the stock mat with the A23, which changed VTA. I also tried using a herbies supersonic stabilizer to the table, which also helped bring everything into focus.

[marz]

Same here: Simplex continues to impress.

You know you can actually adjust the VTA on the fly. Follow the same procedure you would if it were not moving. Just be careful not to move post side to side while going vertically. Then adjust the dampening cup to taste. All this is probably not recommended but it works for me.

Another happy Simplex owner.

[watercourse]

Put on the retipped Shelter 501 mk II, and wow, this is the best I've ever heard this cart! There may still a teensy bit of extension that the Audiomods arm has over the WT arm, but the coherence of the WT arm is just right.

[watercourse]

Mounted up my Benz ACE SL onto the Simplex over the weekend. Had to adjust the overhang to compensate for the mounting screw to stylus distance, to align correctly to the jig. Dialed in the sucker over the next few days, and tonight, the combo had me singing along with Curtis Mayfield Live at the top of my lungs.

The man was so full of humanity, wisdom, compassion, and soul. They don't make em like him anymore, thank goodness we have his music to lend strength! Got one more side to go, then off to bed!

[Erocka2000]

What jig are you using?  There should only be a 19 degree angle of the headshell to the arm.  No fine tuning is necessary.

[watercourse]

I'm talking about the WTL-supplied alignment jig. Seems the Benz stylus-to-mounting hole length is a few mm longer than the statistical model Firebaugh developed for his proprietary alignment. Just rotated the arm post back to accommodate the additional overhang, so that the stylus hits the x without the cantilever having a significant skew from the angle of the grid lines.
In other words, counter to the instructions, I don't have the pivot point centered in the cup, it is rotated 1 cm off in order to accommodate the Benz overhang requirements. Dialed in VTA, azimuth, damping as usual.
Some may argue its necessity, but I'm not sure adding potential error to the 2% that Firebaugh has already accounted for makes sense if it can be avoided; in any event, it sounds awesome.

[Erocka2000]

Ah, the old alignment jig.  There was actually a discussion here regarding it's accuracy and it boiled down to it being incorrect (Mike Pranka confirmed).  Well Tempered said that the headshell should be at 19 degrees to the arm tube and that the originally supplied jig should not be used. 

Here's the thread regarding the alignment:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=104488.0

[watercourse]

Thanks buddy. Since the arm length is different on Simplex, I'll confirm with Mike P if there are any issues. Imaging here is spot-on, and no other alignment-related audible problems I have heard.

[watercourse]

OK, reporting back findings. As I mentioned the Benz has significantly longer cantilever (and overhang) than my other carts. For instance, the stylus/mounting hole distance is 2mm longer on the Benz than the DV 20xl, and about 4mm longer than the Shelters.

I tried the "WTL-approved" alignment guide (from here on out called "WTL"), and listened to the difference from my "WTL-offset-angle with OH adjustment" (aka "WTL-OH"). There was a significant difference in the outer groove playback: lots more apparent distortion with the "WTL" compared to the "WTL-OH". However, the inner half of the records were excellent.

I measured the S-P distance and OH for both mountings, with offset angle being the standard 19 degrees. I then plugged them into the tonearm alignment calculator tool at VE, and found that the model outputs mirrored my listening tests.

Max tracking error and max tracking distortion were higher with the WTL (4.3% and 1.474%) compared to WTL-OH (3.42% and 1.174%). Interestingly, the WTL alignment never has 0 distortion on either parameter, as opposed to the other popular alignments. Given that the WTL alignment with Benz is within spec (Firebaugh says OH was spec'd at .5 inches, which interestingly is right where the Benz is), and assuming that the numbers don't tell the whole story with sound quality, I simply present results to you for your consumption.

I can provide the measurements if anyone has the interest.

[watercourse]

Geez, I forgot to mention this important point. Although the outer grooves in the WTL alignment did have higher audible distortion in the upper midrange (heard in the bite of brass, piano, strings), the overall sound was fuller than the WTL-OH.

[Erocka2000]

So does this mean you prefer the WTL alignment to the WTL-OH alignment?

[watercourse]

Well, I guess it's a trade off with the Benz right now. With the WTL-OH, I was initially expecting more bass than I was getting, compared to the Audiomods/Baerwald. I'll have to play some more albums to see how well I do with the additional distortion, which I may find too grating. This is really surprising as I have dialed in the Benz on the other arm. The Shelters were a much better match with the WTL arm so far.

[watercourse]

Ok, so I've compared a variety of albums between the Audiomods arm with Shelter aligned to Baerwald, and the WTL arm with Benz cart aligned ala Firebaugh. I've listened to tracks from 30 albums so far, concentrating on the outer and inner tracks.
What it comes down to is that for most of the records, it is the quality of the pressing that is controlling the presence of distortion, rather than alignment. Additionally, it seems that it's more or less 50/50 which alignment might have enough audible distortion that it becomes a problem, and there is no clear "better" alignment from the standpoint of audible distortion. Interestingly, there was a track mid-wax that the Shelter combo had a lot of problems with sibilance, but the Benz only had a hint of; this is an outlier that I'll have to keep an eye on to see if it pops up again and is related to factors other than pressing.
In my case, the character of the arm/cart combos will determine what I'll listen to: the Audiomods a bit more extended especially in the bass region and more dynamic; the WTL more cohesive and controlled.
So the bottom line is with 30 samples so far, the WTL alignment stands up to scrutiny.