[78-L] Stylus Alignment

[Doug Pomeroy]

Hi John,

It ain't rocket science, despite what you may have been told.

SME used to provide a strip of cardboard with marks on it which could
be used to set the proper distance from the arm's pivot to the tip of  
the stylus,
and maybe you can even get one from the SME web site?  (And there are
other sources for this type of protractor, if you do some internet  
searches.)

The other alignment concerns the angle between the stylus and the  
surface
of the disc.  If your eyes are good, you can easily get "into the  
ballpark" simply
by LOOKING CLOSELY at the way the stylus rests on the disc surface when
the disc is not moving, first viewed from in front (azimuth), and  
second from the
side (zenith).  The azimuth angle should be straight up and down, and  
the zenith
should be straight up and down for 78s, but tiled backward about  
fifteen degrees
for LPs.  (These are not hard and fast rules, of course.)

Don't be afraid to use your ears, as the proof of the pudding is in  
the hearing.

Doug Pomeroy
POMEROY AUDIO
Audio Restoration & Mastering Services
Transfers of metal parts, lacquers,
shellac and vinyl discs & tapes.
193 Baltic St
Brooklyn, NY 11201-6173
(718) 855-2650
audiofixer at verizon.net

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> Message: 15
> Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:17:39 -0700
> From: John Charles Tippet <johntippet at cox.net>
> Subject: [78-L] Stylus Alignment
> To: 78-L <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Message-ID: <4EB1C183.1060106 at cox.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> I will be replacing a Shure V15 Type III cartridge with a Shure N447
> cartridge in a few weeks time.  The new Shure cartridge comes with 3
> truncated elliptical stylii for playing 78s (2.5, 2.8 and 3.3 mils) in
> addition to the standard LP stylus.  I believe that alignment of the
> cartridge/stylus assembly to the tone arm (SME) is critical and that
> there are alignment tools for accomplishing this.  Can anyone on this
> list recommend someone in the southern California area who could do  
> this
> for me?