Feickert analogue protractor....Owners impressions

So, Out of all this great discussion. I am more confused than ever.

Is there a best way to set your arm and cartridge up to minimise groove distortions, generally sound the most musical and leave it resonably easy.

Or is a combination of eg Feikert and Wally/Mint specific to your tonearm the best way to go.

Thom

thanks for trying to explain this in more simple terms with the pro's and con's. due to the fact I live in Australia, I'll leave it up to some of the other folks in the US to take advantage of your kind offer.
just a few comments/questions

- Graham - you set the pivot to spindle by using the actual arm and attaching it to the spindle adaptor - should be then perfect. with the magneglide on the phantom - no unipivot wobble.

- Feickert - Exactly what does this tool do, except to align pivot to spindle distance very well. Or can you adjust the overhang like Joe said above.

- looks like arc protractors like Wally / Ken / Mint are the best but most difficult to get right??

Yea Dan, I was talking about using the protractor and paraphrasing Thom.

I have used a wally for some time with my JMW. When I upgraded from 12.5 to 12.6 - worked fine. from 12.6 to 12.7 the P2S distance changed - can't use the wally anymore.

Me I might be joining some of the folks here and getting a Mint. The Friekert for me seems to offer nothing.

cheers

I have one of Yip's Mint protractors coming as well in the post as we speak.

I am used the wally tractor on my old VPI JMW 12.5, however that is useless now that I have teh 12.7.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the mint goes vs the Graham Phantom jig alignment

Tim, sounds like you and your soundstage buddies need to do a comparison of several alignment protractors like the wally, mint, ken willis, db, freikert etc and publish it in soundstage.
Use your table/arm and someone else's. It would be interesting reading on the positives and minus's of each.

Yes, I received my Mint Lp protractor late last week.

I guess my assessment is not as glowing as others who have posted. First up, it works and works well so no issues there.

I am not sure about the others but my protractor has drops and marks ( under the surface between the stuck on plastic and the mirror) which made the protractor look dirty and s/h. Yip assured me this was normal as the top of the surface was clean and smooth - which it was.

I find the Wally tractor is better made, has both baerwald and Loefgren alignment choices. Mint only has Baerwald as he says it sounds better. Wally gives you the choice of aligning to either and you choose which one you prefer.

The arc and null points on the Mint are on the plastic sheet with pen or similar, whereas the Wally tractor has a laser etching on the mirror for the arc, baearwald, loefgren and null points. This actually makes it a little easier as your stylus will sit in the etched groove ( it is not deep enough to damage the stylus) as a small nudge will move it off the etched line.
With the Mint, you need to rely purely on sight of the tip of the stylus touching the arc or null point. Easy with my Dyna XV-1, maybe not so easy with my Koetsu. So alignment I believe is easier with the Wally.
Both use parallax to get the alignment of the cantilever perfect.
The 10X Lupe was a waste of money, however the 5x magnifier with light that came with the Mint was excellent.

Customer service - no doubt Yip is a lot better than Wally in this regard. Yip followed up with prompt emails so No1 as far as customer service goes. Wally OTOH is very SLOW with emails, even thou he is a very nice guy to talk to if you can catch him on the phone.

Mint vs the Graham jig. Both end up with a similar result, except the Mint gets you to a more precise alignment due to the fact that the Mint or Wally has a point and parallax to align the stylus tip and cantilever, whereas the Graham does not have an exact point to align the stylus tip so you are unsure where to rest the stylus point.

Would I buy another Mint protractor for the new price of $110 vs $149 for the wally tractor, or the new Wally universal tractor that has 13 seperate alignments on it.

I would buy the Wally, however I might change my mind if his customer service is still bad.

Hope this helps

cheers

What else does it need to do? ;-)

Smart arse :-)

Just trying to give a comparison between the Mint and the Wally and the Graham jig specific for Graham users.

Sunnyboy has all ready said his cardboard rega gives the same resu7lt as the Mint.

Speedy

That is interesting re the Graham. does it still have the two parallel lines which spread out to the right and left at the top which you align your cantilever to.
Are you saying there is now a dot or line at the end for the stylus( if this makes sense)
maybe I'll get out my magnafine glass again tonight :-)