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Re: What KT88 said, and...

You have raised some interesting issues.
Visible cantilever
It was not until I saw the Grace F9e with its clear guard that I realized it was possible to have a cantilever clearly visible from the top and side yet well protected. It makes more of a difference than I would have believed. Not only can you see in but the cantilever and stylus are not shaded by the body so you get a very clear view. It is much easier to cue and align than my V15 or M97.
VTA
I find that its very helpful to see the cantilever to get or to check approximate VTA. Doing it all by ear may be great for an expert to fine tune things but its not so good for getting it into the ballpark, particularly with arms that are not easily adjustable or for people who are just starting out.
Rake angle
I find that with a loupe, I can align the rake angle of a well lit nude diamond stylus to within less than 1deg by using the reflection off the vinyl. This corresponds to moving a typical arm by 4mm and when the view is clear I can get significantly closer than that. This generally sounds best and I generally can't improve it by ear though perhaps others could. I certainly find it a lot quicker this way. I have had no luck just depending upon having the arm level. The reasons for this seem to be that at least with my equipment, a level arm does not mean a correct rake angle. Shure told me that manufacturing tolerances for rake angle are about plus or minus 2 degrees. To that you can add the difference in alignment between the headshell and the arm (significant on both my SMEIIIs and my Profile) and variations in cantelever deflection with VTF, age and temperature.
Dirt and fibre
I often see stuff from the side that I miss when looking from the front.
Protection
I too had thought that visibility and protection were tradeoffs. That was until I saw the Grace which achieve a high standard for both.
Threaded mounting holes
Got to agree with you here. Much easier (so long as you are not trying to mount to a headshell with blind threaded holes eg Thorens)
Clearance
My feelings there come from a painful experience involving clips, fine wires, a long cartridge and my small headshell SMEIII before I realized that it had a detachable armwand.
David



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  • Re: What KT88 said, and... - energyandair 01/31/0516:04:57 01/31/05 (0)


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