[SteveFord]

www.musicalsurroundings.com/fozgometer.html

There's the link from a product that caught my eye in TAS Vinyl Guide. 
Not having an oscilliscope, this looks like it might be the ticket?

[Rob S.]

Yep, i borrowed a buddy of mines....   I was questioning my cartridge setup and the results of using it confirmed I did fine on the setup.   It's fairly easy to use too.

Rob S.

[chosenhandle]

a friend brought one over and I thought it was a great little gizmo. Worked well and was very easy to use.

[Wayner]

Due to the fact that coils in a cartridge do not have identical outputs due to manufacturing tolerances, how will this device not lead you down the wrong path and end up with a skewed azimuth?

Put your stylus on a flat mirror on the platter and look at both  the image and the stylus at the same time. If they look parallel, your good to go. This device looks like more snake oil to me.

Wayner 

[sts9fan]

But Mikey Fremer loves it!!

[Wayner]

So What?

[sts9fan]

He's THE guy.

[timztunz]

Due to the fact that coils in a cartridge do not have identical outputs due to manufacturing tolerances, how will this device not lead you down the wrong path and end up with a skewed azimuth?

Put your stylus on a flat mirror on the platter and look at both  the image and the stylus at the same time. If they look parallel, your good to go. This device looks like more snake oil to me.

Wayner 

I suppose I could be missing something here because I'm certainly not an expert, but.......if the outputs of the coils are potentially different because of some alleged lack of manufacturing QC, why would putting the stylus and image of the stylus parallel (according to an eyeball) be more accurate than a device that can actually measure something?  I've never seen one of these things in action so I can't speak to it's accuracy or not.  But if this is flawed I would certainly have to think something left up to a human's perception of parallel would be at least equally flawed.  Have you ever noticed what some people's perception of a picture hanging straight is?

[tonyptony]

I'm no expert either, but I think it may be a question of equalizing the signal level versus possibly having the stylus tip at an off angle to the groove. Possible that this may damage records over time.

[Sonny]

Why can't we just use our ears?  Put a mono LP on and the sound/image should be coming dead center, right?  If's it's one side or the other, you know you need to adjust Azimuth...  am I missing something???

[thegage]

I try not to be amazed at how even though people are obviously connected to the internet they can't be bothered to take the time to research something before they comment on it. The Fozgometer does not simply measure channel level. It's a bit more sophisticated than that.

John K.

[andyr]

Why can't we just use our ears?  Put a mono LP on and the sound/image should be coming dead center, right?  If's it's one side or the other, you know you need to adjust Azimuth...  am I missing something???

Yes, Sonny - I think you are missing something! 

Put a mono record on and, yes, the soundstage should appear to come from the centre ... but only if the following parameters are equal (or compensate for each other in terms of L & R channels):
* output of phono cartridge.
* output of phono stage.
* output of preamp.
* output of power amp.

Otherwise, you have to use your balance control to centre the image.

If all these parameters are equal (or you've adjusted your balance control to centre the image), I don't think altering azimuth will change anything.  However, I'm not sure about altering bias (in a mono situation).

Regards,

Andy

[andyr]

I try not to be amazed at how even though people are obviously connected to the internet they can't be bothered to take the time to research something before they comment on it. The Fozgometer does not simply measure channel level. It's a bit more sophisticated than that.

John K.

Pray enlighten me as to how it works. 
Yes I am connected to the internet.
Yes I have read various reports about it.
Yet I am still unsure whether it really does what it needs to do to get azimuth set right ... or whether it falls short because it does not compensate for channel imbalance in the cartridge output.

Regards,

Andy

[lazydays]

But Mikey Fremer loves it!!

that right away makes it suspect
gary

[lazydays]

He's THE guy.

if you read the crap Freemer writes and had a little idea about what he claimed he was talking about you'd know he was off on the deep end. I quit reading Freemer's stuff years ago when he told the masses how he arrived at the differences between turntable setups. His ideas were flawed before he even started the compairson
gary