DaVinci tonearm and azymuth

Istanbulu,

Your link to the Mint site raises another consideration -- whether azimuth should be set to optimize electrical performance or to physically align the stylus perpendicular to the record surface. Imperfections built into the alignment of the stylus with the generating element of the cartridge may mean that both cannot be optimized at one setting.

I personally align my cartridge optically, as per the Mint site because I am more concerned with minimizing wear/damage to the stylus and to my records than getting the last iota of performance out of a cartridge. I use a pair of high quality magnifying glasses for that purpose.

Dear Larry: IMHO the best way to " minimizing wear/damage to the stylus and to my records " is not hear/touch it ( kidding. ). The life is to short like not full enjoy your records because that trade off, at least for me.

regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Listen to Doug and Raul, and while you're at it, learn to play a musical instrument or to sing. This will help you to trust the most important component in your hi-fi system - the "ear-brain"

I spend more time in my conversations with customers on this topic of musical appreciation and how you approach setting up your system.

Most mainstream dealers/manufacturers would pose the following question to you: "who are you going to trust - the reviewers (and the specs) or your lying ears?".

I vote for training your "lying ears".

Take some basic music lessons. For the price of an interconnect, you can buy a keyboard or an imported guitar. A harmonica is even cheaper.

This will open up entire new worlds of musical enjoyment as you learn to understand how musical patterns unfold.

This azimuth thread is a prime example of my experiences of demonstrating azimuth setting to customers.

I'll demonstrate the process using a mono Ella Fitzgerald record. One particular cut I use is her version of "I Love Paris".

When everything is dialed in right, the distortion drops away, the bandwidth increases, AND her body takes on a robust, 3-D image - instead of sounding like an isolated cardboard cutout in space.

There's a sudden physicality in the performance when everything snaps into focus.

Some folks I demonstrate this to get it immediately.

Others (poor souls), notice an increase in surface noise, and think that the setting is off.

Guess what? You're picking up the noise from both groove walls, and yes ... a correct azimuth setting is ultimately about getting the stylus aligned orthogonally with the record.

The technical treatment of azimuth by Victor Khomenko is absolutely correct, and I even link to one of his Vinyl Asylum threads in the Tri-Planar section of my forum, but I'm having doubts about leaving that link in place.

Drawing attention to the theory runs the risk of taking people's focus away from what they're trying to accomplish. It serves those of us who are technically inclined, but most people begin to trust themselves and their ears less.

In your hi-fi travels, if you listen with musical values, you'll be a happy boy.

If you listen like an audiophile, you're doomed to misery.

You get to choose.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

One key problem of our present day existence as an audiophile and/or listener of recorded and reproduced music is, that throughout our life from early childhood onwards we are told and educated to trust our eyes only and to believe what is "written black on white".
The ear is our very first sense (working long before we leave our mothers body), but we are trained to mistrust our hearing and a huge majority of audiophiles in the western hemisphere have a very strong tendency to rather believe in written articles about 2nd hand listening experiences of others than trust their very own ears.
You are not doomed to misery, if you listen like an audiophile.
But you are certainly doomed to misery if you read like an audiophile and if you mistake reading for hearing.
Listening like an audiophile can be delighting and enjoyable, but it is VERY hard and will hardly ever leave you in an elevated nor completely satisfied state of mind for more than a few moments.
Listening to recorded music is one of the very few truly revolutionary inventions of the past century and has enriched the lives of most people.
The beauty in music does not need any audiophile attitude.
To enjoy the mere beauty of sound and the pure sensation of realistic sound puts you on an endless journey.
Its then up to each where to draw the line and to choose the individual position.

It however can be a very enjoyable journey and once you clearly see the mountain top, the last steps are very clear and quite easy.

Happy new year 2010........