Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: MintLP Best Tractor Accessory by thegage

Model:	Best Tractor
Category:	Accessory
Suggested Retail Price:	$110.00
Description:	Cartridge Aligment Protractor
Manufacturer URL:	MintLP
Model Picture:	View

Review by thegage on December 05, 2008 at 08:08:35
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for the Best Tractor

I'm one of those LP fanatics who's never quite sure of his cartridge set-up skills. Over the years I've used a number of alignment devices: various paper/plastic gauges supplied with tonearms, the dB Systems protractor, the MFSL Geodisc, and most recently the Feickert universal protractor--which is what I used with my Hadcock arm to set up my current Benz L2.

But even with care and time spent on alignment I have not always been satisfied with the sound, and I've always had my doubts about accuracy--largely driven by end-of-side distortion, or excessive sibilence or distortion on certain passages. In my search for cartridge perfection I had considered the Wally Tractor, but additional research led me to the Best Tractor. I had a bit of hesitation over ordering from Hong Kong, but other customer comments were positive so I took the plunge. Each Tractor is made specifically for your turntable/tonearm combination. Yip, the purveyor of the Best Tractor, asked a few pertinent questions via e-mail, and when he was satisfied he had the information he needed he went off to work his magic. From ordering to arrival was a little less than 10 days--not bad--and everything arrived in fine shape.

Over the course of an evening I fitted the Tractor to my turntable and went through the alignment procedure. The Tractor is built to attain a high degree of accuracy, and as such the lines used for reference are very thin. You need good magnification and a lot of patience. During the alignment my first surprise was that compared to what the Feickert had indicated my effective length was too long by about 1.5 mm. After correcting that I then aligned the stylus/cantilever. It was pretty close to what it should be, but Yip recommends taking the time to get it exact, and so I did. The clever parallax system that Yip employs makes it prefectly clear when you have attained best alignment.

After I was certain that I had the proper alignment I reset VTF and checked azimuth and cued up the 45-rpm version of Louis Armstrong's "I Ain't Got Nobody" re-issued by Classic. My wife, who rarely pays attention to my system other than the fact that it plays music, said unprompted, "What did you do to your system? It sounds a lot better."--and she was sitting in the room next to the listening room. Smoothness, openness, ease of the sound, naturalness, separation and depth were all improved.

Another LP that has frustrated me with passages where there is break-up is the Fitzgerald/Pass "Again" 33-1/3 Analogue Productions reissue. I would guess that the LP is just cut "hot," but after alignment with the Best Tractor most of the break-up was eliminated.

I owned an ET-2 tonearm for many years, so I am very familiar with the character of sound when tracking errors are reduced or eliminated. I would say that the Best Tractor is the only alignment device that for me has brought the sound of a pivoted tonearm closest to that of a linear tracker, especially at the inner grooves.

Now, the Best Tractor is not cheap compared to a paper protractor, but it is less expensive than the Feickert, and it is expensive because it is accurate. You could use it on another setup, but only on arms with the same pivot-to-spindle mounting distance and with the same spindle diameter. If you like to change arms or 'tables a lot you will need to get a new one every time you change.

Well worth the cost and effort, in my opinion.

Product Weakness:	Expensive; fiddly in terms or proper alignment, and you can spend a lot of time with a lot of frustration
Product Strengths:	Most accurate alignment of cartridge (as far as I can tell) to date; custom-made for your specific set-up; sonic benefits are worth it

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: McCormack DNA-225 with SMc Audio Platinum upgrade
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Parasound Halo JC 2
Sources (CDP/Turntable): VPI HW-19 MK-IV, SAMA, Super Platter, SDS, periphery ring. Hadcock 242 Cryo SE tonearm. Benz L2, PS Audio GCPH with Underwood mods
Speakers: VMPS Ribbon Monitor 1; Adire Rava subwoofer
Cables/Interconnects: Harmonic Technology Magic Link 2, Liveline
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Various
Room Size (LxWxH): 16 x 16 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments: RealTraps, Bass Busters
Time Period/Length of Audition: One Week
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): PS Audio Power Plant Premier, PS Audio Duet, SRA platforms
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	McCormack DNA-225 with SMc Audio Platinum upgrade
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Parasound Halo JC 2
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	VPI HW-19 MK-IV, SAMA, Super Platter, SDS, periphery ring. Hadcock 242 Cryo SE tonearm. Benz L2, PS Audio GCPH with Underwood mods
Speakers:	VMPS Ribbon Monitor 1; Adire Rava subwoofer
Cables/Interconnects:	Harmonic Technology Magic Link 2, Liveline
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Various
Room Size (LxWxH):	16 x 16 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	RealTraps, Bass Busters
Time Period/Length of Audition:	One Week
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	PS Audio Power Plant Premier, PS Audio Duet, SRA platforms
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner