It is of the utmost importance to adjust the turntable with arm and phono cartridge correctly. Place the turntable on a strong cabinet, in an audio rack or on a special construction that is bolted to the stone wall of the listening room. These supports should be level.
See to it that the turntable is perfectly level also. This is essential to minimize wow and flutter.
It is also a prerogative for the proper functioning of the phono cartridge and the arm. Only if the turntable is level the down force and bias (side thrust) can be adjusted correctly.

In case of a floating sub chassis (Thorens TD160, TD166, Ariston, Linn LP12, a/o.) you should adjust the springs in such a way that the platter is level and the sub chassis does not touch the base plate or plinth. To check if you have done it right just push the spindle down with your index finger, the platter should go down and come up always staying level. That means that the platter should not rock or wobble. If it does you have to make new adjustments.

Adjusting is a bit difficult because you first should take off the bottom of the plinth and then place the turntable on two small tables, on boxes or crates, or in a rack and adjust the springs from underneath while the table is level. The way the springs are adjusted has an influence on the final sound. If the springs are too supple, there will be a lack of mid band presence. If they are too short by turning the nuts too much, than the sub chassis will not be de-coupled as desired, the frequency of the floating subchassis will be too high and the sound looses its refinement.

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Check whether the arm and the head shell are parallel to the record. Most manufacturers of cartridges take care to mount the tip and cantilever in such a way that a Vertical Tracking Angle of round and about 20 degrees is achieved when the arm is parallel to the record. The standard today is 20º. Vintage cartridges from the nineteen sixties for instance have a tracking angle of 15º.
The final VTA adjustment will be done later after you have adjusted the azimuth and down force and bias have been precisely set.

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Now check the cartridge seen from the front. It should be perpendicular to the record. This is easily checked using a small mirror (as Thorens used to supply with their turntables). A precise way of measuring the azimuth is by using a test record and a voltmeter. But this can only be done after the correct down force and bias have been adjusted.

If you have bought a replacement needle, check if the tip is really well mounted. Check the cantilever from the front with a magnifying glass. The cantilever should be perpendicular to the cartridge body. The tip should be in line with the cantilever. It is a good practice to take the small art director's magnifying glass with you to the shop and insist that you check before you pay. A needle tip which is out of line can not read the stereo groove. If you buy on-line from a renown seller like Elex Atelier in the USA for example, there is of course no need to worry. But going directly to a shop, checking can do no harm. Just to be sure.

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While engraving the laquer disc (from which the matrix is made), the cutter head moves laterally from the outside of the lacquer to the inside. At all instances the cutter diamond makes a 90 degree angle with the groove it has cut. This movement can be imitated by a tangential tonearm. Most tone arms however are not tangential or parallel tracking tonearms but radial arms which move along a fixed radius. The result is that during play the lateral angle varies. The diamond of the cartridge does not completely mimic the path originally made by the cutter head (See also the description of the Rabco SL-8E tangential arm.)

When using a radial arm, there is practically at every instance a tracking error which results in a time difference between the signals of the left and right channel. Just a few milliseconds! Therefore it is necessary to mount the phono cartridge in the tonearm in such a way that this time difference is kept to an absolute minimum.
The longer the arm, the smaller the error will be.
Of course it is possible to build a tone arm which is much longer than 12 inch, but the stiffness and the density of the materials used, and the mass of the arm, are the restricting parameters.
The manufacturer will probably mention in the list of technical specs what the overhang for a specific cartridge is. Adjusting the arm in accordance with the specified overhang can give the least tracking error.

Place the cartridge over the 120 mm line with the needle tip precisely at the crossing. The cartridge's body should be parallel to that line.
Now lift the cartridge, move it and place it over the 63 mm mark. Again the needle tip has to be placed exactly at the point where the lines cross (you need to turn the platter a little by hand). Then at that point the cartridge's body should again be parallel to the line when the diamond tip is placed over the spot.
You have to adjust the arm and cartridge in such a way that at both points the configuration is exact.

But that is probably not enough. The above template enables you to check the error of the Lateral Tracking Angle at every position of the arm. You can start at the small circle. See to it that the front of the cartridge is parallel to the line marked 0°. After that you can check at various points and see what the error is: + or - one or more degrees. You can save this drawing and print it and enlarge it so that the distance between A and B is 15 cm.

Not all arms were built with the optimum geometry in mind. So in certain cases it can be necessary to shift the cartridge in the head shell a little. This means that you are changing the lateral tracking angle and possibly optimizing the geometry of the arm. This can only be done if the headshell has slots.

If the headshell does not have slots you can make these yourself or if you are not handy have them made. That makes it possible to align a cartridge in a tonearm of which you do not have specifications. Just follow the directions given above using the template and find the lowest degree of error and distortion.

Note: If you do not use an original diamond tip offered by the manufacturer of the cartridge, you cannot rely on the specifications of the cartridge any longer. Specifically if it is an old cartridge. The replacement needles often do not always have the precisely cut and polished tips, the tips may have more mass and the rubber and magnet may also not be comparable with the original quality. So it is possible that a new manufactured tip will alter the performance of the cartridge: compliance and tracking ability, frequency response and dynamics. In that case you also have to find the best down force and side thrust which can be completely different from the values of the original cartridge.

Apply the amount of down force as indicated by the manufacturer of the cartridge. Consult the reviews and charts and tests of early editions of magazines like Hi-Fi Choice, Hifi News & Record Review, Hi-Fi World, or old High Fidelity issues, if you do have the specs. Never use a downforce that is too light. Not enough downforce is generally more detrimental to the record groove than a downforce which is slightly too heavy.

Each time after adjusting the down force do listen to the result. It takes some practice and listening experience to find the optimum downforce. If the sound of a saxophone is too light and shows an accentuation in the midband with a slight resonance, than the downforce (in relation to the bias setting) is too light. If a clarinet gets too muddy the downforce is too heavy. In that case also the sound image will lack in space.
The downforce is hardly ever precise the value given by the manufacturer.

When Edison designed his Phonograph Cylinder, he engraved the sound in a vertical movement: the needle went up and down, or as it is called "hill and dale".
Emil Berliner from Germany designed the gramophone record and he engraved the signal in a lateral or horizontal movement.
The combination of these two "systems" made the stereo record possible.
In order to give both the left and right channels the same technical parameters, this combination of lateral and vertical engraving was turned 45 degrees. The contact of the diamond tip to both walls of the groove should be the same, despite the fact that it changes while playing a record.

When a record is turning, and the needle tip is held in a spiral groove and is following this groove, a force will be excercised on the arm and cartridge. This is a centripetal force (CF) which will move the cartridge towards the spindle. The arm can only move in a radial way as it is held in position by the pivot. The result is that there will be an increased pressure on the groove wall which contains the sound of the left channel. In order to neutralize this force, and to give both groove walls equal pressure, it is necessary to apply a counteracting force at the other end of the arm, passed the pivot. The force to be apllied is called side thrust compensation or bias compensation. It is done by means of a pending weight or a magnetic force. (Note: A linear / parallel tracking arm does not need this correction.)
To adjust the bias or side thrust (BA) correctly, use a test record with a groove-less section. The right amount of side thrust compensation (in relation to the downforce) will keep the cartridge from moving either towards the spindle or towards the periphery of the Lp record.
You may also play the tracks of a test record containing heavily modulated signals for left and right, and listen carefully at what level of bias compensation + down force the distortion is the least, or even completely absent.
If you are a perfectionist, you may connect an oscilloscope alternately to the left and right outputs of your preamplifier (or the Record Out sockets), and check the bias adjustment by playing the test with separate left and right channel signals, in various modulations, starting at 50 mu.
The use of a Record Weight and/or The Universal Record Stabilizing Ring makes it possible to choose a more precise downforce and bias as the use of these does reduce distortion already to a great extend. This will result in a better adjustment and a much better signal.

After downforce and bias have been set meticulously the VTA can be adjusted. In the nineteen sixties the angle was 15 degrees. There are few manufacturers who guarantee an exact VTA of 20 degrees, which is the adopted standard.
But even then the angle may vary slightly, because the manufacturer did not comply. And if the manufacturer's angle is a perfect 20 ° it may in practice be different in your system, because the downforce may alter the angle slightly.
There is another aspect. Records have not always been cut at the precise angle of 15° in the early days or 20° in the nineteen seventies and eighties. Cutting engineers mostly had their own choices because they wanted to obtain better dynamics (which sometimes resulted in edgy sound) or wanted just a more soft sound; probably related to their own turntable and audio systems on which they played back their own creations.

The VTA will generally vary when playing a record which is not completely flat or is warped.
If there is continuous variation in arm movement (up and down and/or swinging excessively) when playing a perfectly pressed Lp, than it could well be that the arm is too heavy for your cartridge. Your cartridge has probably a high compliance and needs a lighter arm. Check the parameters of arm and cartridge.
We should always bear in mind that the record groove contains information measured in micrometers and these should be retrieved.

Nevertheless it is very important to set the correct VTA if you want to obtain a detailed sound with beautiful high frequencies, with warmth and attack at the same time. Lowering the arm at the pivot so that the cartridge will lean slightly back will give a round and less detailed sound. If you go too far, than the mid band will suffer and the sound will be dull. Adjusting the arm at the pivot so that the cartridge leans more forward gives a more detailed sound. If the cartridge leans too far forward the sound becomes hollow and unnatural, the harmonics will suffer. Especially with fineline diamond tips and the Van den Hul-tip the precise VTA is of the utmost importance. You have to find the best adjustment for good harmonies and detail at the same time. So listen carefully! The determination of the best VTA can only be done of course by ear.

But as not all records have been cut at the same vertical angle, there is a slight problem. At the end of the nineteen seventies The Audio Critic suggested the idea of optimizing the VTA for each and every record you would play. The idea was simple: use cardboard of varying thickness (millimeters) and cut these to the size of the turntable mat (or I would suggest: about 28 cm in diameter). If you have set the VTA in a way that the cartridge is leaning slightly forward, than you can vary the VTA by adding a cardboard "mat". The idea is to mark on record cover or inner sleeve of each Lp which cardboard-mat has to be added. Adding cardboard discs in between record and turntable mat may give an optimum VTA but will also deteriorate the contact of Lp and mat, and it will change the "color" of the sound reproduction. So cardboard discs are out of the question, at least for me personally.

 If the platter is very high it can be necessary to add an extra base plate In case the arm does not allow varying the height at the pivot, you can put a wedge between cartridge and head shell

IMPORTANT: Some audiophiles add a small wedge when they think it necessary to adjust the VTA in specific cases. Placing a wedge can help in rare cases. But placing a plate, piece of rubber, felt, or whatever material you choose (as is sometimes advised by so called knowledgeable audiophiles) in between cartridge and headshell should not be done. It provides a "loose" contact between cartridge and headshell.
Placing a material between cartridge and headshell may give (on first hearing) the signal more speed, especially the high frequency region becomes faster, but at the same time a correct transient which is built up from the lowest to the highest frequencies will show a less harmonious build up.
The reason? The insertion results in a more or less prominent phase shift (difference in time). A wedge or plate will certainly translate into a so called bending mode, the frequency of which is followed by its second and third harmonics (and even higher). This bending mode will color the sound.
At first hearing there may be some refinement and more spaciousness, but after a while it shows all too clearly that the correct build up of harmonics is impaired.

A good transient is dependent on each part and every material used in arm, platter, motor, chassis, plinth and feet. The application determines whether the sound is lively, well balanced, whether it is lacking in detail and whether it is lacking an open, blooming mid band.
The cause is mostly the use and combination of specific materials.
The sound should simply be harmonious and should covey the magic of instruments and performers.
If you need a small intermediate plate between cartridge and arm to make the high frequencies more refined, than it is clear that you are compensate for certain materials in arm and other parts which do not have enough bandwidth.

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If the mechanical adjustments are not correctly made a distorted signal will be the result. If you have done your best and distortion persists, and it is not caused by the maltreated record groove, you should check the diamond tip of the cartridge or have it checked by a professional.

A used diamond has at its very tip very small facets that cannot be seen with the naked eye. They are at the end of the tip and not on the sides above the groove. These facets let the tip act as a chisel that will "cut" the grooves, especially the grooves which contain high dynamics.
If you play with a good tip and if down force and side thrust are well adjusted, than you can listen to your records many and many times without the quality diminishing.

 

A FINAL WORD ABOUT THE CONDITION OF THE LP AND THE ENJOYMENT OF THE MUSIC

If you use a tone arm with e detachable headshell, you can optimize the sound reproduction by choosing the headshell which will give the best harmonics, the best attack and transient and the most even frequency curve. The main feature of aluminum is that it does not send the energy back to the cartridge. The transmission and dying out is also relatively fast. Generally aluminum provides a wide frequency band. Magnesium or a mix of aluminum and magnesium can provide a more controlled signal reading. The high frequencies are more precise. .
Another most important point is that the headshell has to be screwed as tightly as possible. If this is not done the sound will loose precision and the transient will be impaired. You can check this by playing a high quality guitar recording.
Also the turntbale mat does influence greatly the precise reproduction.

Music lovers with excellent sound reproducing systems often use expensive phono cartridges. A price tag of $ 1000 or even $ 4000 for a cartridge is no exception. Naturally these music lovers demand that the gramophone record is of the highest quality: no scratches and the groove must be clean and undamaged.

There is a second category of collectors who go for specific artists and performances. They are primarily concerned with the authenticity of the performance and the originality of the recording. Minor imperfections are often unavoidable and are accepted. Yet even collectors demand good reproduction without irritating distortion.
Maybe you fall into both categories and can enjoy the perfect and overwhelming rendering of a beautifully recorded symphony, opera and concert, but also can listen with great involvement to an old imperfect record.

For the older records a monaural cartridge with a spherical tip in combination with the appropriate mass of the arm and the appropriate down force is needed. Sometimes one encounters a very old mono record from the early nineteen fifties which will sound very well when played with a crystal pick up and a downforce of even 8 gr. Some old Deutsche Grammophon or Philips discs can benefit from this approach. I also have discovered that old Remington discs sound rather well on an old Garrard portable gramophone with a small tube amplifier. I once encountered an old 4 record set of Tchaikovsky's Yevgeny Onegin on an early Soviet label which did not sound at all with a Denon DL103 in a rather heavy arm, but revealed all its intensity and beauty with that same Garrard portable.

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The position of the connecting pins at the back of the cartridge varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. The connections for the cartridge wires on the inside of the head shell however always have the same configuration if a standard SME type shell is used. Make the correct connections for the leads. Otherwise the reproduction will not be in true stereo. This tone arm/headshell wiring diagram shows how to.

NOTE: Also the headphone and the loudspeakers should be connected correctly. If not, the rendering of the musicians in the middle of the orchestra or the jazz formation will not occur because the middle part of the image is on the outside of each channel / speaker and will not 'connect' acoustically.

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Is the sound shrill and are the high frequencies accentuated? Or is the sound too dull and lacks transparency?
In any case you should check the loading of the cartridge. The phono input of your (pre-) amplifier should have the right capacitance to meet a specific moving magnet cartridge. The higher the capacitance the duller the sound. So check the specifications of amplifier and cartridge given by the manufacturers.
A moving coil cartridge should be connected to a phono pre-preamplifier which has an input impedance of at least 2 1/2 times the value of the impedance of the cartridge's coils.
The impedance of the input of a step-up transformer should be the same or slightly higher than the value of the coils of the cartridge.
Check the specifications of the cartridge and the specs of your (pre-) amplifier or step-up transformer, and see if they match.

Before the RIAA playback characteristic was generally adopted, record companies cut their records as they thought would make the music sound best on their own equipment.
Today there are phono stages on the market which enable you to adjust (equalize) the right characteristic for the playback of a variety of vintage records. There are cheap ones of about a few hundred dollars which only do the job in mono and are sonically rather average. The really good ones enable you to equalize all sorts of mono and stereo records meticulously. But these are very expensive.

A record clamp or record weight will improve the contact of record and turntable mat. Vibrations and all sorts of resonances will have lesser chance to be generated. False high frequencies will not occur. The overall signal will be more precise and the sound will have less distortion. View: The Universal Record Center Stabilizer Weight. Eliminating distortion means improving the signal.
A Record Stabilizing Ring (RSR) which rests on the periphery of the record, eliminates distortion a step further and improves the purity of the signal. View: The Universal Record Stabilizing Ring.

If you live in a house/apartment with concrete floors, you can use an audio rack with spikes to support your turntable. If you want a good coupling make small holes in the carpet and place the spikes directly on the concrete. Always choose a 4-legged rack. A 3-legged one will not give firm support to amplifiers, players and turntables because on the side where there is only one leg, the corners of the shelves will not be supported and will have a resonance (bending mode). Avoid glass shelves. Have shelves made of plywood or just use chipboard which has a make believe plastic veneer or similar pattern. That is in my view a good material. I myself do not use MDF because of its uneven frequency characteristic. Furthermore it stops the sound energy instead of dissipating it. (Do not use MDF for loudspeaker cabinets either, unless you glue three or four layers together for the baffle of the cabinet and brace the inside walls of the cabinet.) If you do not have a concrete floor, you can have a special shelf mounted on the wall (with strong bolts). Do not use more than one de-coupling device. Do not stack cones, rubber feet, etc. If you have a turntable with a suspended sub chassis (Thorens, Linn, etc.) do not put the base on another spring or rubber insulator. Couple the table directly to the shelf.

To get the best quality of reproduction it is imperative to take care of the records. That is why records need cleaning from time to time. If you do not have access to a professional Keith Monks Record Cleaning Machine, which provides the most efficient way to safely clean records, you can buy a DISCO ANTISTAT, with which you bathe and brush the two sides of the record and then let the record dry. If you use the cleaning liquid for which you will read the recipe at the bottom of this page, the results will be very effective. After cleaning and drying put each and every record in a clean inner sleeve If you are handy you also can repair the covers to a certain extend and also clean them. See: Record Cleaning.

LONG LIVE VINYL

Install the record player in such a way that you can easily access and use it, that is: low enough not to scratch a disc when putting it on the platter. Always look at the record when putting the record on the platter, lowering and lifting the arm and taking the record off after play. Never look away, but concentrate on what you are doing. This will diminish the risk of damaging the record. Also keep the records as clean and dust free as possible. Fingerprints, dust and grease are the enemies of your records... and of your ears.

All these measures do not only give maximal enjoyment but will also result in a longer life of the diamond tip of the cartridge. By using good equipment the record will keep its current quality, even after many hundreds of playings and for another hundred years!