Time to choose: Baerwald, Lofgren, Stevenson ?

Chakster, You might consider listening to the Victor tonearm in Lofgren for several weeks.  Then re-align for Stevenson (only assuming that the Victor UA7045 is designed for Stevenson), and listen for another few weeks.  Then decide which you prefer.  A few hours of listening to one alignment is not going to provide sufficient information, in my opinion.

Sampsa, I agree that when an underhung tonearm with zero headshell offset is operating anywhere on the LP surface such that the cantilever is not tangent to the groove, there is indeed a skating force. The only point on the LP surface where skating force is negated (zero) is that one point of tangency.  But the apparent excellence of such tonearms, despite the large tracking angle errors that they can produce at the extremes, suggests to me that skating force created by the headshell offset angle necessitated to achieve any of the 3 major 2-point geometries, and maybe the common strategy for introducing anti-skate, may be in some way more pernicious than is the skating force due purely to lack of tangency.  That's what interests me.

@lewm 

Chakster, You might consider listening to the Victor tonearm in Lofgren for several weeks. Then re-align for Stevenson (only assuming that the Victor UA7045 is designed for Stevenson), and listen for another few weeks. Then decide which you prefer. A few hours of listening to one alignment is not going to provide sufficient information, in my opinion.

That's what i'm gonna do. I think i'm very well prepared for a long winter, it's start snowing and getting below zero degree. I will spend more time listening good music in the late evenings (using different carts and arms). That's the the plan. 

What is truly amazing with Victor X1 is my new 100k ohm resistors that completely change the sound of this cartridge. Hard to believe i’m listening to the same phono stage and the same cart i used before at 47k ohms.

Hi Chakster,

Subtle differences in damping; whether mechanical (from varying tracking force, anti-skate or application of damping fluid) or electrical (loading) can have a profound effect. Loading is about more than tuning the response peak although this is definitely important and dependent on your phono stage.

Hi Lew -

One reason I’m not inclined to take others’ experimental results at face value is because of small variances like what Chakster observed which tend to be overlooked. I’ve been guilty of this in the past as well.

Setup parameters are another point of vulnerability.

Since I’m in turntable development at the moment, one of my rigs goes unplayed for 2-3 weeks at a time. I find that when I fire it up, some fine tuning of the setup is necessary - specifically, parameters prone to be affected by suspension changes: azimuth, VTA and to a lesser extent, tracking force. Note that I don’t do anything until the cartridge has run for a few hours. IOW, this isn’t a result of the cartridge being "cold".  Cartridges with line contact styli are more variable in this regard, although conicals are not exempt.

I still want to ween you off that Feickert protractor ;-) It’s a good tool, but I don’t think you can achieve results repeatable enough to base your conclusions on. His software is great, but nothing in my experience has produced the precision and repeatability of an arc protractor and without this, I don’t think one can draw any meaningful conclusions.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Thom, I haven't made any meaningful conclusions in years.  Most of my conclusions are inconclusive.  However, I do think that if we think we can set up a tonearm within less than an +/-0.5mm margin of error, we are kidding ourselves.  By the way also, where did I say that I have any particular allegiance to the Feickert protractor?  I also own a UNItractor from you know who in Germany.  It's capable of a higher level of accuracy, but it's quite fussy to use.  Thus I sometimes use the Feickert when push is coming to shove.  I've got no beef with an arc protractor either.  

Seems to me that a very slight error in implementing Lofgren A/B or Baerwald, or Stevenson, one that still results in two null points on the surface of the LP, is not going to make a huge difference in one's experience of the sound thus derived.  I would be receptive to a contrary argument that is based on science.