Agree about the ease of the Talea's azimuth adjustment. Perhaps even more important, it doesn't compromise the rigidity of the armwand in any way. I'm looking forward to your lengthier impressions. We only had the protoype for a day and were VERY impressed. It beat the cr** out of our present tonearm.
The proper tone to optimize is obvious - use the one you hear best! For crosstalk, consider that the ear determines the directionality and distance of sounds at mostly upper-mid to high frequencies, so that's what we should listen for. Trying to assess the direction or image size of a bass drum or tuba is much harder than doing the same for a trumpet, bell or soprano.
Bells are especially good for this because they have a tendency to ring (heh!) if not reproduced very accurately. Any lack of clarity will be audible as distorted phase response, as mentioned by Essentialaudio. Paul and I have a few oddball LP's (okay, just stop thinking that!) with natural percussion instruments in the upper register. They're excellent for dialing in azimuth, provided you enjoy 12th C. Andalusian dance music.
The proper tone to optimize is obvious - use the one you hear best! For crosstalk, consider that the ear determines the directionality and distance of sounds at mostly upper-mid to high frequencies, so that's what we should listen for. Trying to assess the direction or image size of a bass drum or tuba is much harder than doing the same for a trumpet, bell or soprano.
Bells are especially good for this because they have a tendency to ring (heh!) if not reproduced very accurately. Any lack of clarity will be audible as distorted phase response, as mentioned by Essentialaudio. Paul and I have a few oddball LP's (okay, just stop thinking that!) with natural percussion instruments in the upper register. They're excellent for dialing in azimuth, provided you enjoy 12th C. Andalusian dance music.