Mint LP a no go – now what?

You can read my review of the Uni-pro in another thread. As for the sound, the thing I noticed right away with the VPI jig was that grand pianos came more alive and smooth to my ears. As a disclaimer, I am a professional musician and have also mastered and engineered some award winning jazz albums. I've been listening critically to serious music since I was 2 years old. So I trust my ears more than anything else.

The Mint which is based on Baerwald gave an edgier and grainier overall sound to much of the music I listen to. The Uni-pro using his template made specific to the 10.5i arm gave my lps a sound that reminded me of some of my sessions that were mastered onto analog tape when I was a kid. Not sure what Daniel base his template for the 10.5i to but it sounds great.

Finally, his uni-pro is so easy to use and I can see very easily the cantilever of my Grado Statement1 cartridge which was an impossibility with the Mint and the 10x loupe. And of course, as you know, with the VPI jig, accuracy is a bit wanting.

Just my 2 cents.

I haven't read this whole thread and probably won't, but Johnbrown you might try the Stevenson alignment with your SAEC. That works best with my Dynavector DV505 and many of the vintage Japanese tonearms were designed with Stevenson in mind. There is a free Stevenson protractor on Vinyl Engine. They are not easy to find these days.

Do you guys think it's possible to adopt Baerwald with a vintage tonearm designed with a headshell offset angle for Stevenson? When I tried that, the cartridge had to be twisted inward in the headshell, so the cartridge and headshell were not aligned in the longitudinal axis (viewed from above). Therefore the cantilever is not aligned with the vertical motion of the pivot (in a Dynavector, where the two pivot points are separated.) This sounded awful and did not sound good until I re-aligned using Stevenson, which when done resulted in the correct longitudinal alignment of cartridge and headshell.

Thom, You have customers who can look at a Triplanar and think that the bearing pivot is at the center of the VTA dial? And these guys were smart enough to make enough money to afford a Triplanar. What a country!

I'll resurrect yet again. I agree with those that believe that the VPI jig is a good tool poorly executed. Aligning the cantilever, for me, is the difficulty. But having fiddled endlessly with it, I have hit the nail on the head... finally. I don't hear distortion at all, that I can identify anyway. I think I would be able to recognize any now that my system can resolve the way it does. I attribute a major portion of getting to this point to the system component isolation provided by Stillpoints products. Before reading these threads again, I was considering a Mint LP protractor but am reconsidering that purchase. I don't want a next step to be a compulsive purchase so I'm stepping back to ponder this a while longer and just enjoy the music

Obviously, there are several different alignment philosophies, and if anything can be agreed upon on this topic, it's probably that there isn't just one, ultimate, "right" way to align your cartridge.

Those who contend the VPI jig is "inaccurate" tell me nothing what that really means. Inaccurate as opposed to what? Another alignment approach? Those who use linear tonearms will tell you that all pivoted arms are essentially a poor man's way to listen to records. Those who say that they realigned their carts with the Mint and the difference is "night and day" tell me that they personally prefer the sound resulting from the new alignment significantly, and nothing more. Why would anyone accept this as the US Supreme Court's verdict in the case of Mint LP vs. VPI Jig is a mystery to me.

I had my Lyra Delos cart aligned with three different protractors, including the Mint, and they all rendered a terrific sound, but I ultimately prefer the VPI jig. Every time I listen to music, I'm mesmerized but just how good the sound is from my Classic. Is anyone going to try to tell me that it's not possible because the VPI jig is inaccurate?

So by all means, everyone should try different alignments to see what gives them the best sound, for them. After spending thousands of dollars on the analog front to get the best sound you can get from the money you spent, it's simply common sense. But dismissing the VPI jig as inaccurate and deficient from the get-go is just stupid to me. And if you can't see the grid on that jig, how on earth are you going to align your cartridge with the Mint?

Actusreus, I agree with you re the VPI jig. First, there is noting magical about the VPI jig. Based on some e mail communications with Mike at VPI, I understand that the VPI jig is based on Baerwold (sp?) geometry.

And btw, I also have a 40 year old adjustable metal protractor that also is based on Baerwold geometry. Should it then be any surprise that after I align my cartridge using the VPI jig and then recheck the alignment with my old netal protractor, that there is no discernable difference in alignment between the two tools.

I'll leave it to others to debate the pros and cons of one geomtry over another. But for the record, I do not concur that there is something "inaccurate" about the VPI jig.