by mandym » Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:46 pm
There is a glut of stuff available to align a tonearm. If you want some freebies, google "cartridge alignment tool". You might also want to buy one that cost more than your mid-priced cartridge (Feickert protractor for $249.99!!).
A cheap protractor is fine for me. Just between you and me, I find that slight errors in alignment do not make or break a tonearms "sound". Rather it is the arm material, resonance, construction, bearings, etc. that impart the sonic signature of a particular tonearm. The most expensive protractor cannot alter it.
After the tonearm is aligned for tangency at 2 specific points and the tracking force and anti-skate are set, the really difficult task is in making sure that the stylus rides the record grooves the way it should, not tilted to one side and with the correct Vertical Tracking Angle. Only then can one assess how good a tonearm is. Be forewarned though that lower quality tonearms/cartridges are immune to these requirements. It seems inconsistent (not so, after a little reflection) but the better the tonearm, the "more perfect" the stylus attitude needs to be! You know you are on the right track when changes to the VTA and Azimuth alters the quality of the "sound".
Fortunately there are excellent and indispensable tools available to guide us; they are located on the sides of our heads.