[avahifi]

Dean Kayser, my prototype engineer has been ragging on me for some time now that my old HK T30 turntable, even with an external 12V DC power supply and a Longhorn Gold perfectly mounted, was not good enough.  He claimed that I was missing out on the finer things in vinyl these days and this was affecting my ability to judge his work towards better RIAA phono circuits.

So Dean conspired with Wayne Nielson, my turntable and phono cartridge specialist, and Saturday morning Wayner showed up here with a new (well in new condition) Sony PS-X5 direct drive turntable arm combo and a new Longhorn Gold cartridge exactly set up according to Wayne's cartridge alignment set. 

It weighs about 5 times as much as my old HK T30 and is dead quiet with the Grado based cartridge.

Musically, there is no comparison to my previous setup.  It is day and night better.  Bass, dynamics, transparency, detail, everything!  I am kinda red faced to think how long I ran the old setup and because of that was kinda "ho hum" about vinyl performance.

Stupid me!  I have now started to go through my couple of thousand records once more.  This is the nicest overall improvement to my reference system since we designed the new Synergy and Fet Valve equipment

Other than having to get up every 20 minutes or so to turn the record over, its at least as nice as my best CDs, maybe better.  The new TT setup also tells me that our best and inexpensive RIAA phono circuit option ($199 in any new AVA preamp) is very darn good too.

Frank Van Alstine

[dB Cooper]

You used to be a non-fan of DD TTs Frank... Mellowing in old age? 

[avahifi]

The Sony is a much newer design than my old DD reservations and simply does not have those old jitters.

Frank

[plaf26]

Yay!  How 'bout a picture?

[JerryM]

Have you spun your Telarc "1812" yet? 

Have fun,

Jerry

[plaf26]

Now that the Technics SL1200 series is out of production, it's nice to know there are other possibilities in the DD realm.

[Nick77]

The Sony is a much newer design than my old DD reservations and simply does not have those old jitters.

Frank

Are you aware that table is still 30yrs old?

[Otis]

You used to be a non-fan of DD TTs Frank... Mellowing in old age? 

This Sony was built in 1977 when the Japanese table makers were mostly still using a 9 inch arm, instead of the later 9-1/8th inch arm. So theoretically, it shouldn't be possible to do a proper Loefgren B or Baerwald alignment on this 'shorty' arm.  After all, the spindle to pivot distance is only 200 mm. 
So howdja do it Wayner? Does your alignment system somehow compensate? This is very interesting!

Glad to hear you're getting more into the music, Frank!

[Wayner]

Who ever said a 9" arm could not be aligned to a Lofgren B or Baerwald? The arm is 200mm from spindle to tonearm pivot center, which makes the overhang to be 19.535mm for a Lofgren B (70.285/116.604 null points), 19.040mm (65.998/120.891 null points)  for the Baerwald alignment.

If I remember correctly, I put his in the Lofgren B alignment, with plenty of slot room to spare. I did a spreadsheet on alignments awhile ago, starting at 200mm. Not sure how shorter I should have gone. The short arms may produce a slightly greater amount of tracking distortion compared to a 10" arm, but I haven't done the graph on it, and certainly don't hear it. I still have my Sony PS-X7 here in the same alignment.

Wayner

[Wayner]

Just did the graph for Lofgren B (I can't post pictures). Average RMS % distortion = .479, maximum RMS % distortion between null points = .74

Wayner

[Otis]

Who ever said a 9" arm could not be aligned to a Lofgren B or Baerwald?

Me, I guess, based on having a lot of 9 inch arms pass through here and not being able to align them because of not enough headshell shot. On most of them I couldn't even use Stevenson.

You've given me hope that I've made an error somewhere and in future can align these tables.
Thanks for that and the calculations - most interesting!

Update - I just ran your numbers through C. Hoffman's generator and they exactly match his for Lofgren B using IEC inner/outer limits.  I've been using his "typical" setting, where the inner/outers were 63/145. That tends to pinch things down and force the cart appox. 0.8mm further 'out' to align, which might explain why I kept running out of headshell slot.

[plaf26]

I have now started to go through my couple of thousand records once more.  This is the nicest overall improvement to my reference system since we designed the new Synergy and Fet Valve equipment

Other than having to get up every 20 minutes or so to turn the record over, its at least as nice as my best CDs, maybe better.

Frank, you must be well into your couple thousands records by now.  Any further insights, observations?