Just got my Scoutmaster, need setup suggestions...


Hey guys,

Just got my Scoutmaster (actually got it 2 weeks ago but just got around to setting it up now). I set it up as best I could with the dealer's help over the phone (for 1.5 hours). This was my first TT that I ever owned, much less set up.

Now, I balanced the tonearm + Dyn20XH to 2.0g using a Shure gauge... it took some trial and error, but I got it pretty close.

Now, the sound is overall very good, much better than my digital front end by a very good stretch. The only gripe I have is that image is a bit to the right....

I switch back to my digital front end and the image is dead center.... so I know it's not speaker/seat positioning that's off.

The Scoutmaster uses the JMW9 tonearm... and there's a weight in the back of the arm that one uses to calibrate and balance the arm/cart on the gauge (sorry if I'm not using good vinyl lingo here). I noticed that the weight is a little off kilter though... making the tonearm skew a little bit towards one side moreso than the other (rolling more towards one angle).

Is this affecting the imaging?
joey_v

Showing 1 response by pmotz

Stringreen got it right. What you are adjusting is azimuth. The Scoutmaster manual (from the VPI website) mentions this but doesn't do a good job of explaining the procedure. The manual does state to use something like a coffee stirrer so the aluminum rod must not come with that model (bet they saved 0.01 cents!). The manual for the JMW 9 manual is not coming up on the web site but the manual for JMW 9 signature does and gives a better description and does indicate the aluminum rod comes with it, go figure. One point to keep in mind, if after getting the azimuth set up using the rod/stirrer if the image is still off center there may be a slight mis-alignment of the stylus. Not unusual, but will require adjusting azimuth by ear. Ah the joys of vinyl!