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Instruction Manual
The
Reference
Dear
customer
Congratulations! You have purchased a
tonearm that, in order to allow the most accurate AND musical reproduction of
your records, features a bearing that differs from all other tonearms available.
To take full advantage of this inherently superior design even experienced
"vinylists" should take the time to study this
manual. |
I hope you¡¯ll enjoy mounting and
adjusting your tonearm as much as the following rediscovery of your record
collection. |
1) Mounting The
Arm |
Mounting the arm requires drilling two
M4-tapped holes in your plinth or mounting board. The location can be determined
from the supplied drawing. Most turntables differ somewhat regarding the
position of the mounting boards relative to the platter.
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While keeping the spindle to pivot
distance constant, rotate the armbase until you have found a position that
allows both free movement of your armwand and results in a resting position of
your arm where the armwand is parallel to the plinth (or offering enough
clearance in regard to the edge of the platter). It is not hypercritical to get
this distance spot on since overhang is adjusted by turning the armbase clock-or
anticlockwise (same principle as utilized in the "sliding base"
SME-arms). |
The following schematics (not to scale)
will help you to identify the tonearm parts and screws necessary to properly
align your arm and cartridge: |
a: overhang adjustment locking
screw
e: bearing thread
f: VTA locking screw
g: VTA adjustment screw, raises or
lowers the tonearm block
h: Antiskating/damping adjustment
disc
i: M3-damping adjustment
screw
l: M4-tonearm mounting
screw |
As seen from
above:
d: counterweight
set-screw
b: cartridge
mounting-screws
c: headshell
mounting-screw
m: damping trough
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As seen from
the side:
d: counterweight
set-screw
j: tonearmwand
k: azimuth adjustment
screw |
The tonearm is to be screwed to the
turntable plinth or mounting board using two non-magnetic (V2A-supplied-, V4A,
brass) M4-cylinderhead-screws (l) from below. Choose the length of the screw so
that a minimum of 6mm of the screws will be sticking out from the tonearm base
once you have inserted the screw. Make sure the overhang-locking-screw hole
(a) points to the right (seen from above) while tightening the mounting
screws (using excessive force yields no
advantages). |
2) Dressing the
tonearmwiring |
This tonearm comes standard with a cable
that was chosen for it¡¯s sonic and mechanical properties. The signal is carried
in a single run from the cartridge clips to the headamp or phonostage omitting
additional soldered connections.. |
Depending on your turntable the cable
can be fixed to the plinth/armboard by means of a clamp to be screwed to the
side of the plinth or utilizing a circular cable dressing base (provided upon
request) which requires an additional 16mm hole. To reduce the "spring"-effect
of the wiring put the arm (wand), still without the counterweight mounted,
towards the inner groove. Whether you¡¯re using a clamp, the wiring base or just
tape to fix the wiring to the plinth makes no difference as long as the
non-shielded section from it¡¯s exit point in the armwand to the fixation point
on the plinth forms an arc(180° – 270°) allowing for the arm to move freely
without the wiring touching the plinth. Please try to keep a distance of at
least 10mm between the magnet assembly and the wiring. The restoring force of
the supplied wiring is small and it can easily be "bent" into shape, though
sharp bends are to be
avoided. | |
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3) Electrical
connections, grounding |
The conductors/connectors are
colour-coded according to the international standard:
Red = right channel, hot
Green = right channel, ground
White = left channel, hot
Blue = left channel,
ground
RCA plugs: red = right channel ; black =
left channel
The standard wiring is shielded from the
arm to the RCA-plugs. The "ground" wire is to be connected to the following
amplification stage¡¯s "ground". If you use a "star grounding" pattern, connect
the ground wire to your "central"
ground. | |
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4) Adjusting your
tonearm/cartridge |
4.1) Prepare
Magnets
First remove the cardboard/foam strip
sitting between the magnets. It was placed there to prevent excessive movement
during shipping. This bearing is, unlike many other bearing types, not
susceptible to shock induced damage. It is still advisable to keep the cardboard
strip for later transports (any appropriately folded piece of paper will do).
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4.2) Mounting your
cartridge
The cartridge can be mounted in the
headshell using the supplied M2.5 non.magnetic stainless stell screws (b). You
might prefer to first seperate the mounting plate from the armwand by unscrewing
the M3-connection-screw (c) .
Usually it is sufficient to tighten the
M2.5 screws well, but not excessively so. Overtightened screws can result in
internal tensions in the cartridge body, negatively affecting the sound or even
damaging the internal structure. Don¡¯t forget: the next step after "REALLY
tight" is "totally loose".
Connecting the mounting plate with the
armwand requires tightening screw c, the same rules apply.
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4.3) Tracking force
and overhang
Take the counterweight and slide it onto
the back section of the armwand. Leave your "stylus cover" (if your cartridge
features such a device) on and set the tracking force to approx. 1.5 gr. Tighten
the counterweight set screw (d) just so that you can still slide the
counterweight without applying much pressure.
Using a proper template (i.e. Dennesen
or the one that comes with the arm) the overhang is now adjusted by rotating the
entire armbase around it¡¯s central post after loosening the
overhang-locking-screw (a). Using the aforementioned alignment gauges will
automatically result in achieving a proper "outer" zero-point (120.9mm) once you
have managed to get the "inner" zero-point(66.04mm) right.
The overhang-locking-screw (a) should be
tightened now.
Next, check the tangency of the
cantilever as seen from above – with the stylus not quite touching the alignment
gauge – and, if neccessary, turn the headshell mounting plate after loosening
screw (c) in the right direction.
Finally, tighten screw (c)
again. |
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4.4) VTA-adjustment
As a starting point you should raise or lower the
tonearmblock until the armwand appears to be parallel to the record surface with
the needle in the groove.
Just unscrew the VTA-set screw (f) une
full turn, insert a 3mm Allen key into the center hole and turn the (hidden)
VTA-adjustment screw (g) clockwise to lower the arm or counterclockwise to raise
the arm (make shure that the Allen key caught the screw).
Don¡¯t forget to tighten the VTA-set
screw (f) again.
This adjustment is NOT to be carried out
during play!
You can use your Allen key and it¡¯s
position relative to the four screw heads holding the top plate of the armbase
as a gauge/reminder how far you¡¯ve turned it. One full turn alters the VTA by
0.7mm. |
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4.5)
Antiskating
To compensate for the skatingforce turn
the antiskating-adjustment-disc (h) counterclockwise to increase force
(initially, several turns might be required!) and clockwise to reduce it. A good
compromise will be achieved once mistracking occurs in both channels
simultaneously while playing the tracking ability test tracks on the ORTOFON
test record (0002 or 0003). In case you have no access to any such test record
just put the diamond on the space between the leadout grooves (or a "blank"
record, i.e. Cardas sweeper record) and adjust antiskating until the
arm/cartridge combo wanders slowly towards the center of the record.
From then on, use your
ears... |
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4.6) Adjusting the gap between the
magnets
With a decent light source placed behind
your record player it is easy to make out (and control) the gap between the
magnets which facilitates friction-free movement of the tonearm.
The distance between the magnets
determines the effectiveness of damping both tonearm/cartridge resonance and
"parasitic" energy, generated by the cartridge or the turntable.
The smaller the gap the higher the damping and vice
versa.
The gap between the magnets is altered
by first inserting a 1.5mm Allen key into the set screw (i) , sitting in the
middle of disc (h). You then hold the Allen key steady while turning the disc
clockwise to widen the gap or counterclockwise to close it.
This sounds a lot more difficult than
what it is..
The gap should be at least 0.3mm wide,
enough to allow for a common business card to be slid in without to much
resistance.
If the magnets were to touch each other
during play the resulting friction would cause the cartridge to
skip.
The suspension thread used has an
extremely high tensile strength, a very hard surface and will not deteriorate
over time.
It does stretch (break in) though over a
period of two weeks max. (usually, it takes three days only). Once it has set,
only under extreme conditions (very high temperatures + high humidity) can the
thread exhibit a tendency to "give" a little more. So check the gap after a
summer thunder storm (no more stretching after three of
those). |
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4.7) Silicon damping
or not
The arm features the option to use
silicon oil (i.e.SME2013) to dampen the tonearm resonance – predominantly in the
axis of the armwand – resulting in a reduction of the "wiggliness" commonly
associated with unipivot tonearms. This has almost no bearing(pun intended) on
the tonearm/cartridge resonance whicht is a function of the eff. mass of the
arm, the compliance of the cartridge and it¡¯s mass.
Simply dip a piece of non-magnetic wire
(brass, copper...) into the silicon fluid, wait until a drop has formed and wipe
it off onto the thread (near it¡¯s upper end). The drop will slowly travel down
the thread until it finally vanished in the small oil well where the thread
enters the armwand. Repeat until you¡¯re satisfied with the sonic results (do not
overfill). Common silicon fluid has no adverse effect on the thread or the
bearing in general, excess fluid can be wiped off using a cotton
swab.
The effect resulting from that procedure
depends upon the cartridge used and usually increases perceived "blackness"
between notes and solidity of images without sacrificing "attack" and "air".
Some cartridges (recent Lyras for example) sound better without any additional
damping. |
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5) The
"Finetuning"
Everyone who has to mount cartridges
frequently understands the importance of precisely adjusting an arm/cartridge
combination to release it¡¯s full potential.
Overhang, azimuth, VTA, tracking force
and, if featured, variable damping of the arm movement are all important
parameters.
The overhang adjustment was described
already, nevertheless let me add that a single "perfect" overhang setting does
not exist. Should you own a lot of records that are cut close to the inner
groove you might consider using 63mm instead of 66mm as your inner "zero point"
– many crescendo finales of symphonic works could be tracked with reduced
distortion this way.
On the other hand exist a lot of
"pop"-records with no modulation, but leadout groove already where the "inner"
zero point is located. One doesn¡¯t even benefit from this second distorsion
minimum..
Correct overhang adjustment results in
max. tracing-error-related tracking distortion of barely more than 0.6% for an
arm with 239mm eff. length, 0.47% for a 305mm
arm. |
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Fine-Tuning VTF and Azimuth
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Please
refer to the above photo for fine-tuning VTF. After getting the tracking force
somewhere in the neighborhood of the cartridge manufacturer's suggestion, you
can screw the knurled wheel ("A" on the photo) on the back out (away from the
bearing to decrease the VTF and in (towards the bearing) to increase VTF. To
start out it might be best to screw it out a little, this gives you more leeway
in both
directions. | |
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Next, the azimuth should be adjusted so
that crosstalk is the same for both channels. Taken that both channels of your
cartridge are identical, a close approximationof the correct setting can be
achieved by playing a mono record back via an X-adaptor or through your preamp
switched to mono.
Reverse the headshell clips on one
channel only (switch red and green i.e.) and adjust for the weakest signal
coming from your speakers. But: If your cartridge has different output levels
for each channel, this method will result in a less than perfect
setting!
To achieve consistently optimal results
use a test record (i.e. Ortofon 0002) and follow the directions, alternatively
Wally Malewicz (contact : wwmalewi@aol.com) offers an appropriate set
of measuring tools.
Once you¡¯ve "hit it on the nail" a
centrally recorded female voice should be precisely located in space with no
difference in the decay caracteristics between channels.
The proper way to adjust azimuth is by
turning the counterweight set screw loose enough to allow turning the
counterweight clock-or anticlockwise until the headshell plate appears to be
parallel with the record surface.
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Fine adjustment is achieved by inserting
a narrow blade (<3mm) -screwdriver into the hole on the right side of the
counterweight (hold the armwand with two fingers while doing this), then turning
the internal grub screw (A in the photo above) inward or outward, altering the
counterweight¡¯s center of gravity ever so slightly. Please refer to the photo
above, "B" is where the grub screw is located. This adjustment covers a range
of no more than +/- 1.5°. This should suffice to compensate for minor
misalignments of the stylus/cantilever assembly.
Starting with the armwand parallel to
the record surface, VTA adjustment can be carried out in small steps (i.e.
0.2mm, ~ a quarter turn of the Allen key) until the best separation between
individual instrument in space, the least amount of "grain" audible and the best
integration of fundamentals and upper harmonics is
achieved. |
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There is no "perfect" position, varying
record thicknesses and a different cutting angle used for most records made
before 1965 neccesitate a new setting for every other record. Stylus shapes are
also more or less susceptible to changes in the VTA – the "sharper" the stylus,
the more sensitive to changes..) The more time you spend on adjusting the VTA
the less you¡¯ll get to actually enjoy your records.
The tracking force determines the
tracking ability and also the position of the coils in the magnetic generator.
Follow the manufacturer¡¯s recommendation and try increasing or lowering the
tracking force by increments of 0.1gr. Low frequency tracking ability shouldn¡¯t
be lower than 70my. Soundwise more relevant is the high frequency tracking
ability. The appropriate tracks on the Shure TT115 test record are helpful to
get closer to the optimal tracking force.
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The damping is , as already mentioned, a
function of the distance between the magnets, or, more precisely, the flux
density in the gap between the magnets.
It is to be adjusted so that the lower
registers will be reproduced with control and heft without loosing the
resolution of high frequency fine detail and "air".
Overdamping this arm is close to
impossible (often the case with silicone fluid damped arms) but rarely does the
smallest gap result in the most satisfying sound.
The amount of tightening of any of the
arm¡¯s screws has an influence on the energy transmission and therefore
dissipation and should be experimented with.
Generally speaking, only screws a, l and
f should be tightened well. Screws b, c, and d require some
experimentation.
Oh,.. and leave the screw underneath the
lower magnet alone. Once you¡¯ve loosened it , the magnets require realignment
for which the arm needs to be send back to
me. |
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Should you have any
questions regarding mounting/adjusting or technical details of this tonearm,
feel free to contact me via phone or email.
Equally welcome is any
sort of criticism or suggestions for improvements.
Yours
truly
Frank
Schröder |
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