The best cartridge alignment tool

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Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Thanks for your comments. Edit Delete. However, the Dennesen Soundtractor which was made in both metal and plastic versions is very good I have the original metal version, which I use to set up my Rega tonearm and Grado Reference cartridge. I think the plastic version has recently gone back into production, but if you can find a used metal version, it's certainly worth having.

The other possibility is the Geo-Disk mat, which works pretty well and is easy to use. Works well enough. It's easy to use but not infallible--you have to make sure a certain line on the GeoDisk lines up with the tonearm pivot point just right or every other adjustment you make will be off.

I hear great things about the Wallys but have always been deterred by the cost and lack of availability. I second the Dennesen Soundtractor - its not only effective, it's very easy to use so long as your arm has a depressed point over the center of the shaft. If a 9 inch tonearm were aligned according to the Baerwald model and you wanted to switch it to the Lofgren-B setup, the mounting distance would remain the same at 8.

However the effective length would change from 9. In other words, you'd have to slide the cartridge further away from the pivot point of the tonearm forward in the headshell by a distance of 0. You wouldn't have to take any of these measurements to do the alignment, of course. You just point the sight-lines at the pivot point of the tonearm, land the stylus in the center of the grid, sight the cantilever along the runway of the alignment grid, and then square up the cartridge body with the grid lines.

This simple, accurate bubble level is perfect for the job. Remove the platter pad and place the level on the bare metal platter with the motor off. Place shims under the foundation as necessary to make the bubble appear in the center of the printed circles. Observe the motion of the bubble to test for wobble in the foundation.

Do whatever you can to make the foundation heavy and stable, to prevent the transmission of feedback to the turntable. Quiet foundations allow enhanced detail and dynamic range in the audio signal. Complete instructions are included. They cover: levelling the turntable adjusting vertical tracking angle calibrating and adjusting the tracking weight setting overhang length adjusting the tracking angle checking and adjusting azimuth Because some turntable models i.

All other brands of turntable will take the standard spindle hole. Compared with the Baerwald-based alignment tools featured above, Lofgren-B produces a lower average angular error across the width of the playing band, but at the cost of greater errors at the beginning and ending of the band. The Lofgren-B alignment equations, a very popular alternative to the Baerwald model, prescribe a slightly different effective length for any given mounting distance.

The null points on the alignment tool are at distances of 2. These are closer to the middle of the playing band than the Baerwald model's distances of 2. These two alignment geometry models assume the same measurements of the beginning and end of the playing band, but use slightly different equations. Both models prescribe the same Offset Angle at any given effective length. The angular errors which result from aligning the cartridge by Lofgren-B will be smaller in the middle portion of the playing band, by comparison with the angular errors produced by the Baerwald model, but at the cost of greater errors at the beginning and end of the playing band.

However, the average angular error is slightly smaller with Lofgren-B than with Baerwald. See the chart below for more detail.

All utilize the same alignment geometry, and will produce the same result. However they are made to fit different turntables.