Stevenson protactor

[Ben micro glander]

Hello,i am trying to align a hana el on
my rega p25 with a stevenson universal
Protactor and i can't get aligned in the two
null points it's imposible.
Someone Knows how to use iTunes
Thanks

 

[Ben micro glander]

I mean someone Knows how to use it

 

[fiddlefye]

Not every protractor works successfully with every arm. I presume you've the standard Rega arm of the time on the P25? As I recall Stevenson should work well with it.

A few things to consider, but first a question as to where you got your protractor? If you printed it off there is a good change it didn't print out at 1:1. The first thing I'd check is that you have overhang correct at 15mm. If that doesn't produce something that immediately looks at least reasonable with null points on your protractor I'd suspect this is the issue.

 

[Ben micro glander]

Hello ,yes is the standar rb600.
The protactor is from vinylengine and is printed at a scale ,i have checked it.

 

[Ben micro glander]

How i check the overhang?

 

[fiddlefye]

This might help a bit with the concept.

 

[Ben micro glander]

Thank you.

 

[Wntrmute2]

Additionally I would print one of Conrad Hoffman's Arc protractor if you haven't already. His are among the best IMHO. Again, make sure the scale is correct and I believe there is a little measurement check that prints out in the corner.
Once printed, concentrate on getting the stylus to follow the arc. Then worry about the null points. Once close, use a cell phone camera or similar to really dial things in.
It would be helpful if you'd post some pictures of what is going wrong.

 

[izzy wizzy]

The Conrad Hoffman site and his protractor program changed my analog setup for the better in so many ways. And it's totally free. An arc protractor is almost foolproof and do easy to use.

 

[Wntrmute2]

Hey Izzy Wizzy! I'm listening to some jazz through your and Salectric's phono-stage. Just sayin'. So sweet! Sorry for the hijack.

 

[JohnVF]

What might be going on is that Rega uses a proprietary alignment/arm geometry. Their arms use, well for lack of a better term, "Rega alignment". Of the common 'universal' alignment methods, I -think- I remember reading that Stevenson is close to Rega. Close but not exactly the same. With a given cart, if the stylus point is further away or closer to the mounting nuts by some degree compared to Rega's carts, this combined with Stevenson being a bit different, could mean that a given cart simply will not align to Stevenson on a Rega arm while remaining square in the headshell.

I encountered something similar with an old arm from Hong Kong- it simply would not align to a known universal method and I had to research the original overhang spec for that arm, and once aligned using just the overhang (stylus distance beyond the center of the spindle)- the arm tracked wonderfully.

I think the above advice to start with 15mm overhang is good.... as I'm pretty sure that's Rega's spec. Its a good starting point.

 

[fiddlefye]

What might be going on is that Rega uses a proprietary alignment/arm geometry. Their arms use, well for lack of a better term, "Rega alignment". Of the common 'universal' alignment methods, I -think- I remember reading that Stevenson is close to Rega. Close but not exactly the same. With a given cart, if the stylus point is further away or closer to the mounting nuts by some degree compared to Rega's carts, this combined with Stevenson being a bit different, could mean that a given cart simply will not align to Stevenson on a Rega arm while remaining square in the headshell.

I encountered something similar with an old arm from Hong Kong- it simply would not align to a known universal method and I had to research the original overhang spec for that arm, and once aligned using just the overhang (stylus distance beyond the center of the spindle)- the arm tracked wonderfully.

I think the above advice to start with 15mm overhang is good.... as I'm pretty sure that's Rega's spec. Its a good starting point.

I've got arms of so many different lengths and geometries going these days I've taken to calculating my own null points and over hang.

 

[JohnVF]

I've got arms of so many different lengths and geometries going these days I've taken to calculating my own null points and over hang.

Prior to me knowing about alignment at all, and coming of age in turntables in the early '90s when nobody I knew had one- I figured that obviously the 'needle' needed to be in a specific place and actually guessed that it should be perpendicular to the spindle at two points as an approximation with the least error, and so like you made my own. I wouldn't say "calculated"- I just kind of guessed where the nulls would go with some degree of knowing the needle wanted to be parallel to the spindle center the whole way across but couldn't.

It's an odd thing - you are expected to be TOTALLY exact, with a problem that has more than one acceptable solution. I completely agree with you that this or that arm will like one alignment over another.

 

[fiddlefye]

Prior to me knowing about alignment at all, and coming of age in turntables in the early '90s when nobody I knew had one- I figured that obviously the 'needle' needed to be in a specific place and actually guessed that it should be perpendicular to the spindle at two points as an approximation with the least error, and so like you made my own. I wouldn't say "calculated"- I just kind of guessed where the nulls would go with some degree of knowing the needle wanted to be parallel to the spindle center the whole way across but couldn't.

It's an odd thing - you are expected to be TOTALLY exact, with a problem that has more than one acceptable solution. I completely agree with you that this or that arm will like one alignment over another.

These are fun to experiment with.

Tonearm Alignment Calculator Pro - Vinyl Engine

www.vinylengine.com

Overhang Shift Calculator - Vinyl Engine

www.vinylengine.com

I used the "Chpratz Protractor" to do the actual set up. I did have to modify the file (as a PDF) to get it to print exactly to scale and have it floating about somewhere on the computer if anyone eants to pay with it a bit. I found that printing on some thick matter photo paper worked really well. You just find the null point distances you calculated from the scale. Every one I did lined up really easily. Changes of overhang often made for quite audible improvements in tracking.

​

 

[Ben micro glander]

I'll try the correct overhang based on the 15 mm from rega specs.

 

[Wntrmute2]

Post some pictures. Is your problem you can't get the stylus out or in to hit the null points or that you can't get the cantilever aligned squarely at the nulls?

 

[Ben micro glander]

I can't get aligned the body of the cartridge on the outer null point like in the inner null point.
I understand i must align the cantilever/needle apart of the body?

 

[Wntrmute2]

You are moving the protractor each time you are moving the cartridge right? Don't mean to be insulting-just trying to help. A few pics would really help.

 

[JohnVF]

I can't get aligned the body of the cartridge on the outer null point like in the inner null point.
I understand i must align the cantilever/needle apart of the body?

Is it that you can't align them simultaneously or that there is no way the outer one will work at all?

Is the arm on a Rega table or has it been mounted on a 3rd party table? If the latter check the mounting distance, make sure its correct. I think its 222mm (221.7?) but double check.

Photos of the cart could help but it doesn't look to me like the Hana carts have a stylus that's super far away from the mounting screws, which could throw off a mounting formula that was arrived at for different (rega) carts.

 

[Ben micro glander]

You are moving the protractor each time you are moving the cartridge right? Don't mean to be insulting-just trying to help. A few pics would really help.

Yes i have move the protactor