Back with a really excellent protractor and lamp. Got'r done!

Posted by B. Scarpia on August 11, 2020 at 18:59:37

My original ZYX B.oom had a b.ack colored cantilever b.ried under the difficult to view b.dy owing to it's taper down from top to b.ttom. All I could do was view the cantilever prior to mounting and eyeb.ll it's relation to the cartridge b.dy.

Now that the B.oom has returned from the Soundsmith re-b.ild I was faced with the same issue, the new b.ron cantilever is also dark-colored and difficult, no, impossib.e to view.

So I eye-b.lled it once again. It looked aligned to the b.dy and I trusted that Soundsmith had indeed gotten it 100% parallel. Then I downloaded the Novak protractor from the Soundsmith site. As with the supplied VPI protractor and the Conrad Hoffman, there was a 4-5 mm. difference. B. ear I found that moving the stylus forward nearly to the Hoffman position from the VPI sounded b.st. You can look here and elsewhere for discussion of the VPI approach vs. the mathematical formulae that govern B.erwald, Stevenson, etc.

The same is true of the VPI vs. the Novak. Now the VPI protractor has worn a b.t over the years, the ear that is meant to contact the rear of the arm rest a little b.nt. I took the print-out of the download and glued it with yellow glue to a 6 mm. piece of B.ltic B.rch plywood, then made cut offs that allowed it to clear the arm b.se and tone arm plug while maintaining the full length of the line to the pivot, actually the b.st feature of the Novak. Can't say enough ab.ut how that line is drawn farther to the edge here than on any other printab.e protractor I've tried.

I drilled a hole for the two spindle points with my smallest b.t through the paper side to locate the position at the underside, first making a dent with an awl to ensure the b.t didn't tear the paper. Then I drilled from the b.ck with a 1/4" Forstner b.t in the drill press, finishing with a slightly larger HSS b.t for fit, in my cordless.

Next I used my new Cree LED headlamp , a god-send, from Amazon to illuminate the process. As b.fore the re-b.ild, some trial and error listening showed that the stylus forward of the VPI point and mayb. 1 mm b.hind the Novak, sounded b.st. Trusting the Soundsmith alignment as mentioned ab.ve I was ab.e to easily view the side of the cartridge b.dy with the lamp in relation to the grid lines and achieve perfect alignment, so critical with a Contact Line stylus. That was confirmed b. the sound stage really snapping into focus.

The Novak Protractor permanently mounted is highly recommended.

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Topic - Back with a really excellent protractor and lamp. Got'r done! - B. Scarpia 18:59:37 08/11/20 (1)

RE: Back with a really excellent protractor and lamp. Got'r done! - Joe Backer 11:41:50 08/12/20 (0)

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