Feickert analogue protractor....Owners impressions

Hi all, this had been one of the better post i have seen in a long time.
Very unbias. No "war". No "ditch your SME it's crap and buy a Phantom or ditch the Phantom and buy a Triplanar".
Congratulations to all and most particularly Thom Mackris at Galibier.
As far as overhang adjustment with the SME, you must move the base to adjust it and as a result, you are changing the spindle to pivot distance. DON'T SWEAT IT. This is how ARA designed it and there is no other way around it, unless you want to take a hacksaw and "chisel" slots in the headshell of a $5000.00 tonearm. Again, this is an awesome thread.......

This post to date is approaching 2,200 views, someones reading it.
Here's an opportunity to drive home, AGAIN, this subject of proper set up and enjoyment of vinyl playback.

There is helpful guidance for the novice and some veterans of this hobby.

Stay tuned....

I am using WallyTracktor Universal and it delivers the results needed for precise tone arm setup. Most arm type arcs are included in the design. A group or club of analog heads could make good use of this fine phono arm tool.

Excuse me if this is redundant. What about those of us that have an older SME arm that uses the Stevenson geometry? Is it possible to use an arc protractor for these? Aren't most, if not all based on Baerwald? I ask because I just installed a Grado Reference Master on my SME Series III arm. Set the VTA and VTF on a 150 gram LP. Checked and double checked the alignment with a new SME alignment protractor (cardboard, single point). Checked and rechecked VTA/VTF. I notice some sibilence at the beginning of the record. Towards the end, it sounds great. From what I've read, this would make sense due to the Stevenson setup. Is there any way, without changing arms, to more closely "mimic" the Baerwald?

And I agree with Smoffatt, this is a great thread.

Hi 04rdking,

Looking at the specs for the 309 on SME's website:

Effective Length: 232.2
Pivot-Spindle: 213.4
Offset angle: unspecified

From John Ellison's great spreadsheet (free stuff on Enjoy the Music website ... also linked to from my support page):

Baerwaald predicts (for 232.2 effective length)

Effective Length: 232.2
Pivot-Spindle: 214.33
Offset angle: 23.73 degrees

Loefgren predicts:

Effective Length: 232.2
Pivot-Spindle: 213.83
Offset angle: 23.73 degrees

So, assuming your cartridge (stylus position) is consistent with SME's ideal, then your effective length is indeed 232.2. You might try fiddling with the pivot to spindle distance (increasing by about .9mm for Baerwaald and .4mm for Loefgren) to get to Baerwaald and Loefgren approximations.

Perhaps you can lay a piece of masking tape on the base to measure this small change.

If the overall distortion level drops, you can always drop a few coins on either the van den Hul protractor or the TT Basiscs one.

Yip (Mintlp) and I have been positing (not yet verified) that tracing the arc (getting pivot to spindle and effective length right) is more critical than the offset angle.

You certainly won't ruin any records doing this.

Cheers,
Thom