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Cart not parallel after Mint LP alignment?

Howdy,

So after reading about 1000 paragraphs on how good the Mint LP Tractor is - I purchased one and had a marathon session yesterday with my new SL-1210 M5G, AT440MLa and Zupreme headshell...

After all was said and done - the alignment itself took 90 hard minutes - I am finding the cartridge sitting about 5-7 degrees "right" of center. The actual cantilever and stylus are about as dead on as I wanna go with it for now.

Now a comment and a question....

Question: Is this non-parallel result in the headshell normal? It's making me think I may have a bent cantilever or something.

Comment: I have run 10-12 sides thru the rig so far and I must say - I have not yet heard the "revelation" that others have described when comparing their alignments to other protractors or even the white Technics alignment gauge. The rig sounds good...but...what I am missing here.

I must temper the above by saying I have changed phono stages frequently in the last month as well...I was getting nicely familiar with a Bellari VP-130 and then moved that for a Cambridge which lasted less than a week and I now have a Moon LP3 with maybe 25 hours on it...Even my AT440MLa might have 40-50 hours on it as well....

I am thinking that a whole bunch of stuff might need to "burn" in before the system starts to really reveal itself.

But I am very concerned with the stylus/cantilever on the cart...even with all the moves the Mint required...I expected the cartridge to sit straight in the headshell...perhaps expecting too much?

Appreciate any feedback.

Cheers!

VP
vocalpoint
tvad
9,467 posts
 
It's normal. The MintLP is all about getting the cantilever correct. Disregard the relationship of the cartridge body to the headshell.

When I set up my SL1200 w/Zupreme headshell, the cantilever was parallel but the cartridge in relation to the headshell was not parallel.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
I presume that you had your protractor specifically built for your turntable/tonearm. With that as a given, you ask, "Question: Is this non-parallel result in the headshell normal? It's making me think I may have a bent cantilever or something." If your cantilever is bent by the 5 to 7 degrees that the cartridge is off line, you should be able to see that yourself, just by looking at the cantilever. If the cantilever looks perfectly aligned with the cartridge body, then the answer to your question must be "no". Otherwise, it is not necessarily a problem that your cartridge body is slightly misaligned with the long axis of your headshell. (I assume this is what you meant.) However, I am surprised, as you are, by your finding, given the custom built protractor. It may be due to the fact I may have recently read elsewhere that Yip prefers the Stevenson geometry (of the various algorithms, Stevenson is closest to Technics geometry but not identical), so the discrepancy between Stevenson and Technics probably accounts for the slight twist of your cartridge body. In the end, your cartridge is probably properly aligned, and you are not blown away by the result. Possibly your system lacks whatever it takes to blow you away. Compared to before you did the Mint LP alignment, is the sound at least better than it was? If not, maybe you do need to re-evaluate your equipment. Alignment is not the panacea that some would have us believe it is. And thanks for your post; you may have saved me some money.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
When I owned my analog rig, the MintLP produced the most profound improvement of any tool in the box.

For me, the MintLP BestTractor was worth every penny and more.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Dear vocalpoint, You might be interested to read the following post from Vinyl Asylum addressing just the question you are raising, whether you knew it or not:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/90/901608.html

The post supports my recollection that Stevenson and Technics are different. If they ARE different, that may account for the fact that you need to twist your cartridge a bit in the headshell in order to align it with the protractor. You might ask Yip what geometry he uses for Technics tts. I'd be interested to know the outcome. I would repeat however that I doubt this accounts for the fact that you are underwhelmed with your results.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
By the way, I agree with Tvad's very first post: If the cantilever is indeed bent a bit then that accounts for the "problem" you note, which is not per se a problem in fact.
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