Uni-Protractor Set tonearm alignment

Dear Peterayer: Please forgeret about distortions for a moment and suppose that you made ( for whatever reason, never mind here. ) a " mistake " and mounted a cartridge 1mm-2mm forward/rearward of what an accurate protarctor asked.

As you said it you will heard/hear a cartridge that was not aligned properly and this is the subject of this simple " experiment ".

What could you listen or find out? well that's what this test will tell you.

Other than that non-properly alignment nothing that you share with us can have a " negative " argument by any of us. The important subject is what you heard: what you like it, what you don't like it, if you could live with these trade-offs and what do you thing overall against the properly alignment.

IMHO this kind of tests are interesting ones and I have to say that by " accident " ( my errors. ) I heard many times cartridges that were mounted with no properly alignment. I will share my experiences about along yours.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Thanks Raul. I think I understand now. Unfortunately, it takes a fair amount of effort and time to move my TT to properly realign the cartridge after doing such an experiment. I'm presently satisfied with the sound, so I'd rather not mess with it now. I may try it at some later time. I'm sure I could learn something as you suggest.

Dear Peterayer: That is only an " exercise " that you could do it when appropriate to you.

Regrads and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear Dertonarm.
Spring rain kept me from chores so I did some reading on Agon looking to learn. I read through this Uni thread from the start and came across a post you made on March 11 that is puzzling to me.

Specifically you said.

“the linear tracking tonearms - in any incarnation we have seen so far from Rabco, Denessen, Goldmund, Versa Dynamics, Air Tangent, Eminent, Forsell et al -displayed mechanical issues, periphery problems and stability problems which did always crippled their undisputed tangential advantage.
…

Most audiophiles who ever ventured into tangential tonearms later moved to tonearms with 11" or more effective length to approach kind of "best of both worlds".
…

I have had all the above named tangential tonearms in most all their incarnations in my system in the past 30+ years.”

Wow – quite a statement. Two questions.

1) Can you tell me who “we” is when u say "in any incarnation we have seen" ? Is that an audiophile club?

2)
I have owned the ET 2.0 and now 2.5 arms for the past 5 years so your statement caused me some despair. Is there an unknown problem I am not aware about? Would you please be so kind to enlighten me for the “Eminent Technology arm specifically” that you owned - about the stability, mechanical, etc… problems you had.

I found alignment tools provided with these linear arms get you to about 75% of their potential. The rest is trial error tweaking by ear. Personal discussions with Mr. Thigpen have confirmed this. You need to experiment and try different settings. See what u like / dislike. Once past the initial tool settings it is all FEEL, ADJUST, LISTEN. Definitely not plug and play but once set up – you can forget about it without issues I have found.

All problems I came across in my earlier days with the ET arm, and in talking with other folks about linear tracking arms in general - other than pump/air problems – easily fixed - have always been related to actual user errors and the lack of "total knowledge" about the arms and the way they work – thus leading to improper setup. After 5 years I am still learning about my ET arms and how they work.

I look forward to hearing back from you when it is convenient on "your ET specific problems" as you say u owned the ET. You did not say whether it was the 2 or 2.5 version.

Lastly does the Uni package contain any tools that would be useful for lining up linear tracking arms ?

Thank you. Chris

Dertonarm

Allow me to return the rattle that you have thrown from the pram:

You said:

you don't really want me to tell you what additional breakdown torque is and why it does of course influence the skating force.

If I didn´t wish to know I wouldn´t have asked. I´m always willing to learn something new and if you have something new to say, I´m willing to hear it. It is just that you seem unwilling or afraid to actually say anything at all - commercial reasons?

You said

If you think skating force is just a phenomenon of friction and downforce - fine, certainly no problem with me.

I didn´t say that. A neat attempt at misrepresentation.

You said

If you muse about the model and draw yourself a good and precise force vector model of a pivot tonearm, you'll figure out.

I have done. A long time ago. And since then I have re-considered my original thoughts and am willing to continue doing so in the light of new facts.

You said:

I did suggest starting a "antiskating thread" - I didn't say I want to start it nor did I say I want to participate in it.I have no questions regarding skating force in tonearms.

But a lot of talk and precious few answers, it seems.

You said:

Regarding the UNI-Protractor and it's "universal" use.
Apparently you haven't worked with it so far and haven't understand it's principle either. Otherwise none of the comments in your last two posts would have been made.

I think you´ll find it was I (not you)who briefly explained earlier the way your protractor works. I don´t know if you´ve done this elsewhere, but you don´t do it in your audiogon advertisement. Neither do you credit, or even mention, Dennesen at all in your ad.

You say I don´t understand the principle you used. I understand it only too well.

cheers

.