Rega Exact 2 cartridge alignment qestion

The Rega cartridge alignment, using the three hole system, does not conform to the maths of the, commonly accepted, Baerwald alignment, the inner null point being moved closer to the lead out groove. Having owned many Rega decks over the years and using them with both Rega, as well as other, cartridges, I can say, without hesitation, that Baerwald alignment has been preferred by these ears in every instance. The first thing that I do is throw out the Rega paper protractors.

The reason that Rega installs cartridges nuts up is that the grooves around the mounting holes in the tonearm will snug the bolts so that it is easier to torque the screw heads without slipage. So long as your dealer used the Rega torque wrench, the installation should be consistant with Rega's preferred installation, nuts up or nuts down.

Thanks for all of the responses! I am now playing album after alum enjoying the music while the table and cartridge break-in!!! Thanks again!!

Just to add something to the responses, you can do plenty of searching the audio forums on the issue, and couple that up with your own personal experiments. My feeling is the Rega arms and cartridges sound best the Rega way (3 bolts and the resulting overhang that gives you, reportably close to Stevenson theory). For my Exact cartridge I tried Baerwald (Geodisc) with 2 bolts, and the Rega alignment with 3 bolts and preferred the Rega alignment with 3 bolts. Maybe with other cartridges and arms the other theories are better. Also of importance is the specified bolt torque for fixing the cartridge to the arm, which Rega also employs for its speakers. It is easy to get caught up in the important aspect of geometry for Lp playback and discount what I consider to be still more important- things like the mechanical interface between the cartridge and the arm.