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H I - F I C A R T R I D G E A L I G N I N G T O O L S
Tools required are an alignment gauge, a tracking force gauge, a FLAT record,
a screwdriver or Allen keys of the right size (usually 2mm), a good light may
also be helpful. Small needle-nose pliers and a magnifying glass all help. It also
helps to have the hi-fi news test record. Treat the arm with care, as some parts
are fragile. To this end ensure that tightening of any bolts is carried out gently
and without causing undue strain.
C H E C K H I - F I C A R T R I D G E C L I P
C O N N E C T I O N S A N D M O U N T I N G
Tonearm wiring uses a standard colour code for left channel (L) and right
channel (R) and polarity. Coding is as follows: White = L Hot, Blue = L
Ground, Red = R Hot, and Green = R Ground. If the cartridge pins aren’t
colour-coded the same way, they will have letter identifications next to them.
Make sure that the arm’s wires, wire clips, and solder joints are in very good
condition. At minimum, clean the contact between cartridge pins and wire
clips by removing and replacing each clip. Holding the clips with needle-nose
pliers can make this easier, but be careful that you don’t strain the wires where
they join the clip. Check the clips for a proper fit on the cartridge pins, and
adjust them if necessary. “Proper” means snug but not tight. To check clip
size, hold the cartridge tail-up close to the head wires, grasp a clip firmly right
behind its tubular part with the tweezers, line it up with the cartridge pin, and
press. If it does not slide on with moderate force, the clip needs opening-up. If
it slides on easily but flops around when attached, it needs tightening. Sizing
is the operation most likely to detach a clip. The trick is to avoid bending
the wire at its attachment point or putting too much tension on it. To avoid
either, always hold the clip with its wire slightly slack-looped behind it while
adjusting. For opening a clip, hold it firmly with the tweezers or needle-noses,
right behind its tubular section, and press the tip of the jeweller’s screwdriver
into the open end of its longitudinal slot until you see this widen very slightly.
(Here’s where you’ll probably need the headband magnifier or reading glasses.)
You’re dealing with thousandths of an inch here, so a barely visible spreading
may be all that’s needed. Try it for fit, and repeat until it does. For tightening
a clip, press a toothpick inside it as far as it will go, then use the needle-nose
pliers to gently squeeze together the sides of the clip near its free end, while
watching the slot for any change. (Attempting to squeeze a clip without
the toothpick inside it will flatten its sides.) Try it for size, and re-squeeze if
necessary until the fit is correct. When it is, close up the middle section of the
tube to match the end
Cartridge mounting screws (usually 2.5mm Allen bolts) should be tight. Steel
Allen bolts are the best for mounting hi-fi cartridges - aluminium or brass are
OK but difficult to tighten up hard (as they should be).
S E T T I N G U P H I - F I C A R T R I D G E S
M O U N T I N G
Mount the hi-fi cartridge in the headshell if this is not done already. This is
best done with the hi-fi cartridge stylus guard in place but it may be necessary
to remove it during at least one phase of the installation. If you do, replace it
as soon as possible. Be especially careful when the stylus guard is off, as many
MC cartridges have a strong magnetic field at the base of the cantilever. If
this attracts the tip of a steel-bladed screwdriver, it can destroy the stylus -
there is no hope of resisting it. The best precaution is to keep the screwdriver
well away from the cantilever, use a nonferrous screwdriver, or keep the stylus
guard on when you’re using the screwdriver near it. The other main hazard is
children so don’t forget to warn prying fingers.
The headshell screws should be finger-tightened just enough that the cartridge
cannot fall off but still loose enough that the cartridge is easily moved around.
Work whenever possible with the stylus’s safety cap in place. Set tracking
force at nominal, then carry out the tangency alignment procedures, then the
azimuth. Do not deviate from this sequence as each step affects the subsequent
one — change the order and the setup will be wrong.
T R A C K I N G F O R C E
This adjustment is carried out on the counterbalance weight of the tonearm
or spring dial if one is in place. At this point, use your tracking force gauge
and setting tracking force according to your cartridge instructions — final
adjustment will be done later by ear.
If you do not have a tracking force gauge, but the arm does have a calibrated
counterweight, defeat the arm’s anti-skate mechanism or set it to zero. Set
the counterweight so the arm is level and balanced. Be very careful of the
unprotected stylus — you cannot do this with its safety cap in place. Once the
arm is balanced, lock it in its cradle and, using the calibrated counterweight,
set the tracking force according to your cartridge’s recommended weight.
T A N G E N C Y A L I G N M E N T
(Lateral tracking angle) - Follow the manufacturer’s literature and the dictates
of your alignment gauge — different gauges use slightly different methods.
As you square up the hi-fi cartridge body with the gauge’s markings, be sure
that the cartridge sides are square or your alignment will be wrong. When all
adjustments are correct, carefully tighten down the hi-fi cartridge mounting
screws. Keeping a firm grip on hi-fi cartridge and headshell together so nothing
shifts, delicately tighten each screw down a turn or so, and then repeat until
tight. Tightening down one screw all the way before tightening the others is
almost certain to twist the cartridge out of alignment. However careful you’ve
been, always check the alignment again after tightening.
V E R T I C A L T R A C K I N G A N G L E ( V T A )
Unless your tonearm has a special VTA adjuster, adjusting arm height is
usually carried out with the use of spacing washers (as with Rega arms). In
arms with a pillar / collar type vta adjuster it helps to put pencil or pen marks
on the pillar to keep track of various heights. See your tonearm manual for
its recommendations on adjusting arm pillar height. The best approach is
to tune-in VTA gradually by listening to music. You know the arm needs
to be lowered at the arm pillar when the overall sound is hard and bright,
with thin bass or no deep bass, edgy highs, and harsh midrange (of course,
this could also be tracking force which is too light). Distortion obscures low
level details between the musical; notes so dynamic range is reduced. Transient
attacks may be too sharp. Raise the arm when the sound is dull and damped,
the highs rolled off, the lows muddy and lacking definition, and transient
attacks are dull. Mind you, this sounds an awful lot like the effects of changes
in tracking force (too light is edgy, too heavy is heavy and dull). They are
different sounding but hard to explain. Start with the arm a little low and
very gradually raise it, first to where it is parallel to the record, and then so
the back of the cartridge is tilting up. Keep track of your settings so you can
return to the one you like best where everything snaps into focus. The range
of adjustments can be quite broad, as much as 3/4” or even more (at the arm
pivot). Play with the full range so you know what it sounds like and don’t be
diffident.
A N T I S K A T E F O R C E ( P I V O T I N G A R M S
O N L Y )
This applies an opposing, balancing force to the natural inward drag of a
pivoting arm while playing. Left uncontrolled, the stylus would push up
against the inner groove wall, causing distortion both from mistracking and a
cantilever skewed in relation to the cartridge generator. To set, lower the stylus
down near the label of a record with a wide run-out to it. Increase anti-skate
until the arm starts to slowly drift outward, away from the label. Again, this
should be finalized by ear as you listen to music. If image placement is a little
off-centre, or if things don’t seem to be locked in solidly, experiment with
anti-skate. Also, watch the stylus when you set it into a groove. Does it move
to the right or left relative to the cartridge body? This indicates too much or
too little antiskating.
