[Wayner]

Just remember that the baerwald curve is about as perfect as it's going to get. If you can duplicate those extractions to your table, you'll be that much futher in knowledge than many, it will sound better (less distortion) and have less wear on your records. Keep the same 9" from stylus to pivot center distance, move the arm closer to the spindle (center point) to 8.25" and it will be sweet. When I get home I will draw a picture with my CAD and post it, to remove all doubt.

Wayner 

[Wayner]

Here is the geometry for Baerwald's perfect curve. If you can do it, I recommend it.



Wayner 

P.S. Thanks to www.enjoythemusic.com for the very nice "freeware" for this subject. It is very helpful for beginning vinylphools, and old timers too!


In case you can't read some of the numbers:

Overhang: .716"
Pivot to spindle: 8.284"
Radius: 9.000"
Offset angle: 24.128 degrees

[jmpiwonka]

oh sweet. thanks. i'll work on that in the coming days i think. shouldn't be too hard.
i got a new fork for a bike so i wanna get that thing on and take some measurements to see how much shorter the rake is and what my front center will be 
i'm a bike dork also.

[Hank]

Isn't that 8.284" pivot-to-spindle instead of pivot-to-stylus?
Or, am I messed up?

[jmpiwonka]

Isn't that 8.284" pivot-to-spindle instead of pivot-to-stylus?
Or, am I messed up?

yeah you're right hank.
just a typo. pivot to stylus is 9".

[Wayner]

Good catch, gentlemen.

I have corrected the post.

As I'm getting older, the senior moments get more frequent! 

Wayner

[jmpiwonka]

so i remounted the arm last night. i had an extra piece of wood so i just made another armboard.
pivot to spindle distance is 210mm and i have a few mm of adjustment room because i made the holes in the armboard a little large.
funny thing though. to get the overhang close to 18mm, i have to slide the cartridge all the way back in the headshell slots, matter of fact it's all the way back and the overhang looks to be a bit over 18mm, maybe 20mm.
wonder whats going on there.

with the arm mounted at 222mm the arm would follow the curve exactly on that one protractor i printed out (and linked earlier), and the overhang was 18mm.  that protractor is also supposed to be based on baerwald null points.
i thought this would work at 210-211mm because the Audioquest arms mount at that distance. I wonder if there are some differences in the Sumiko Premier FT-3 I have...

i'm going to try to find a different baerwald based protractor on the net and print it out if i have time at work today, the only other one i had was a Rega/Baerwald protractor for arms mounted at 222mm (thats the rega distance isn't it?)...
well, looks like i still have some messing around to do.

[jmpiwonka]

oh i think i got it.
i can't see it all because i can't get to vinylengine at work  but i saw what i needed from the google search.
effective length on my arm is supposed to be 239mm, i think angular offset is 23.45*
i plugged that into the baerwald excel calculator and the factory mounting distance seems pretty good, lol.

this is the link i can't get to.
http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=781&view=next&sid=a0b6a65cb16f932b36064b9df4d9bcd5

[Wayner]

I went to the vinyl engine and got your tone arm specs. Sorry, dude, you have a 10" tonearm.

Pivot to stylus distance: 239mm

Overhang: 17.3mm

Offset angle: 23 degrees

Mounting distance (from spindle center to tonearm pivot center): 221.7mm

I didn't know it was a 10" arm. Now you will have to make another arm board.

Wayner

[jmpiwonka]

that's ok. the first armboard is made for the 222.1mm mounting distance. i can get the arm to 221.7mm pretty easily with the first armboard. it'll only take about ten minutes.

[Wayner]

I used the baerwald Excel file from www.enjoythemusic.com and it looked like 22.25 degrees was alot better than 23 degrees/ It was very close to the theoretical curve.

Let us know how it turns out.

Wayner

[jmpiwonka]

well i mounted back to the original armboard and scooted it in just a bit. it's just a bit under 222mm.
so i have that one protractor and has the colored lines that run past the spindle and are marked.
so i used that to set the effective length to 239mm, then i aligned the cartridge to just a bit less than parallel to the headshell, thinking maybe i'm right around 22.25* instead of what the headshell is offset at.

now, i did this with a low hours (15 maybe) grado silver instead of the grado black. got the silver of a guy on audiogon for a nice price.
that cartridge has better high end extension but is also a bit sibilant.
vtf is at 1.80g, i measured with a digital scale.
the arm is right about parallel to the record surface, the damping well has nothing in it so i think maybe after messing with that i might be able to tune the sibilance out.

too bad i'm moving now so it looks like i'm gonna be with the record player or my nice stereo for atleast a month. crap. 
 

[Hank]

A month?  Ouch 
Where are you moving to?

[TheChairGuy]

jmpiwonka

Tho I have heard others using that range of VTF...I have always found Grado's best tracking force at about 1.6 gram.

Further, I know how you feel about moving....I, too, just moved March 31 and still don't have my gear all set up.  I do indeed need my tunes about now.... 

John

[Arlequen]

...I have always found Grado's best tracking force at about 1.6 gram.

I agree .. but if you have all perfect you can set for 1,5gr. too

[jmpiwonka]

i'll mess with VTF when i get it setup again. hopefully it will be soon.

also want to get some damping fluid for the arm and see if that helps anything out, then mess with the VTA some and i bet the silver will sound real nice.

this table is getting closer and closer.

[jmpiwonka]

well i got the stereo setup a few nights ago. i played a few cds and came to the conclusion the room the stereo is in now is very bright. it's a tough room. wood floors, high ceiling and quite large, need to get a rug on the floor in front of the speakers, might help a little.
the little speakers still do pretty well though.
i found the speakers to be a little dark in the last room and i'm finding quite the opposite in the new room, most of the cd's i've listened to have an uncomfortable edge on the highs, kinda causes listening fatigue.

i got the turntable setup last night  vinyl sounds awesome in this room.
i played an old bob dylan record i found in a thrift shop, it has a nice shine but the record had a fair amount of surface noise. i played it, then cleaned it real good and played it again. the surface noise was reduced noticeably.
then i pulled out a paul chambers album i got off of ebay. i didn't have high expectations of it. i got it for $5 off ebay. the guy told me the albums i bought were from his personal collection not thrift shop finds he's flipping. well, the cover is discolored, the sleeve is discolored, i pulled the disc out and it had a deep shine to it. no fingerprints, and no scratches. i listened to it all last night. holycrap, that record is clean and clear with absolutely no pops. the highs have a depth to them that new records don't seem to have. paul's bass is well balanced in the mix too. i have rarely heard a jazz cd that sounds so balanced. i can't wait to spin the other 4 albums i got from that guy. i'm happy with that purchase.

i played another older album (bruce springsteen-tunnel of love*) and it sounded better than the newer ones i've played too.
i'm wondering should i do a little cleaning to the new albums and see if the highs clear up a little???


*don't really like that album much but i wanted to see how well it sounded, another thrift shop find. it sounds really good actually...

[Hank]

Glad you're happy with your Empire rig, jmpi!  Enjoy the music