Stating the obvious - cart alignment

quadzilla
quadzilla Posts: 1,543
edited July 2010 in 2 Channel Audio
I know most people into vinyl know this, but cart alignment is critical. I didn't realize how critical until I picked up a new phono stage. I was getting what I thought was distortion during some passages, but it turned out that my cart was just very slightly misaligned. I had never noticed the issue with my old phono stage, so it had me rather puzzled until I finally figured it out after about a week or so (with the help of Tom over at Aural Thrills). After correcting the misalignment, the system really smoothed out and I never hear my cart breaking up, not to mention overall response, imaging, etc. are all improved.
Turntable: Empire 208
Arm: Rega 300
Cart: Shelter 501 III
Phono Pre: Aural Thrills
Digital: Pioneer DV-79ai
Pre: Conrad Johnson ET3 SE
Amp: Conrad Johnson Evolution 2000
Cables: Cardas Neutral Reference
Speakers: SDA 2.3TL, heavily modified
Post edited by quadzilla on
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Comments

  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,137
    edited July 2010
    . . . just to go a little further, it is extremely important for best SQ to have as perfectly setup a cartridge as possible but a cartridge that is isn't WILL CAUSE RECORD WEAR and depending on how off the setup is can cause major record damage.

    Good post quad!
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  • quadzilla
    quadzilla Posts: 1,543
    edited July 2010
    Indeed. An even more important reason to make sure your cart is correctly aligned.
    Turntable: Empire 208
    Arm: Rega 300
    Cart: Shelter 501 III
    Phono Pre: Aural Thrills
    Digital: Pioneer DV-79ai
    Pre: Conrad Johnson ET3 SE
    Amp: Conrad Johnson Evolution 2000
    Cables: Cardas Neutral Reference
    Speakers: SDA 2.3TL, heavily modified
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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,137
    edited July 2010
    quadzilla wrote: »
    Indeed. An even more important reason to make sure your cart is correctly aligned.

    You said it! I can't tell you how many people I've come across with their cartridge out of alignment and they can't figure why their vinyl from end sounds like **** and their records are so noisy.
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