Set-Up Tips

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Set-Up Tips
That Crazy Little Thing Called "Azimuth" Part 2
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 19, 2012  |  26 comments
In Part 1 we explained the importance of proper azimuth setup. Now, on to how to achieve it! While using a digital oscilloscope is the most accurate method, it also requires you to spend hundreds of dollars to buy one and then you have to learn how to use it. That's not really necessary for most analog devotees, and so we're not going to go into the details here. If you insist, you'll have to buy one and figure it out using the methodology that will be described, which is generally applicable to whichever way you choose to go.

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Set-Up Tips
Tone Arm Geometry 101
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 16, 2015  |  20 comments
This drawing explains tone arm basic geometry. Thanks to Wally Malewicz for providing it. So let’s go through it together.

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Set-Up Tips
Tri-Planar Tonearm Owner Alert!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2013  |  28 comments
Back in the fall of 2008 I attend an audio show in Trondheim, Norway where I presented two turntable set-up seminars. The show organizers procured for me a Tri-Planar tonearm mounted on a turntable, the brand of which I forget.

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Set-Up Tips
UNI-DIN Versus Löfgren B Just to Clarify
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 08, 2014  |  50 comments
In the Rocky Mountain Wrap Up I wrote about the UNI-DIN curve versus Löfgren but a picture (or a graph in this case prepared by WAM Engineering's Wally Malewicz) is worth a 1000 words.

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Set-Up Tips
USB Digital Microscope Appears to Show Stylus Wear
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 14, 2012  |  12 comments
This was as close and sharp as I could get capturing a stylus image from the front with the Dyno-Lite 313.
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Set-Up Tips
Video Showing Setting Stylus Rake Angle Using a Digital USB Microscope
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 23, 2017  |  44 comments
This video shows you how to use a digital USB microscope to set stylus rake angle (SRA) to 92 degrees, which is considered to be the best angle to start with, followed by adjusting "by ear". Why 92 degrees? It's all explained in an article you can download as a PDF file at this analogPlanet.com link.

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NewsSet-Up Accessory ReviewsSet-Up Tips
WallyTools Are Back From The New WAM Engineering
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 21, 2020  |  13 comments
WAM Engineering's new universal WallyTractor is now available from the newly formed company, a partnership between the late Wally Malewicz's son Andrzej, himself a mechanical engineer and Wally's former production assistant J.R. Boisclair. They've just launched the Wallyanalog website where you will find complete details of the new $395 universal WallyTractor and the available services the Santa Rosa, CA based company provides.

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Set-Up Accessory ReviewsSet-Up Tips
WAM Engineering's New, Improved WallySkater V2.1
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 02, 2020  |  47 comments
Skating, a pivoted tonearm’s tendency to “skate” towards the record center is real, is not created by “centripetal force” and is not best ignored because compensating for it somehow worsens sonic performance.

If you do not apply some kind of skating counterforce, the stylus will ride the inner groove throughout the record side, producing uneven record and stylus wear. And it can’t possibly improve record playback sound.

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Set-Up Tips
What Does Stylus Wear Look Like?
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 28, 2012  |  9 comments
When it seemed as if my Lyra Titan had at least 1000 hours on it I figured it was time for a re-tip. I took a USB digital microscope image and posted it on this site. I thought it showed some wear but before sending it back to Lyra, I sent it to my friend Wally who produced much better and more definitive images using an optical set-up.

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Set-Up Tips
Zenith Angle File Reveal!
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 16, 2022  |  7 comments
The recent Zenith angle error story gave readers a choice of two files, one that corrected the zenith angle error built into the cantilever because the stylus was inserted "off" by about 4 degrees and the other set up using the cantilever to set stylus groove tangency and so adding 4 degrees of error at the "null" point where tangency error should be 0.

The responses were interesting: at first participants chose "File 1" as the one with the zenith angle correction but later commenters chose "File #2". File #1 is the one that's corrected to compensate for the 4 degree error.

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Set-Up Tips
Zenith Angle: The Final Cartridge Set-up Frontier?
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 09, 2022  |  46 comments
First up: identifying the two John Lee Hooker files in The Tapestry reveal: "File 1" is the original pressing. "File 2" is the Analogue Productions 2010 double 45 reissue. Some preferred the reissue, clearly cut from a secondary source, lured by the added bass and top end intended to distract from the soft guitar transients, vocal cloud and lack of top end air and having locked into that, those listeners found the original pressing "bright" and "bass shy". It's a tricky business but while the original may have had the bottom cut slightly it is otherwise massively superior and over time far more listenable. Now on to a really interesting and important test!

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