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Advice/feedback needed on Morch UP4 setup

I am trying to set up a new Morch UP4 arm on a new Amazon Model One table. I have no experience or exposure to this set up or any experience with setting up arms and carts since the early eighties. The question I have is concerning the lack of stability of the assembly at the pivot point. Should it be loose? I have put the weights on and installed the wand and it is still very unstable at the pivot point. I realize this assembly is riding on a bearing and that it is really the only point of contact but I can't beleive it is not supported laterally somehow. For instance, if I have the arm in it's base along with the prescribed weights on and the wand installed and I pick it up by the head shell with one finger it rotates, or spins, if you will. I hope this question makes sense, if anyone out there has set up a Morch UP4 hopefully you have seen the same. An advice/ experience/ feedback is greatly appreciated.
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dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Hi Wdt,

The UP-4 is a unipivot, which means the the arm is supported entirely on a single, sharp point resting in a small cup (or possibly the reverse). There is no lateral support of any kind. That would defeat the intention of the design, which is to eliminate bearing friction.

All unipivots rotate about the axis of the armtube when torqued rotationally, as by lifting with the finger lift. This is normal but it does take some getting used to.

The critical thing is that the stylus be vertical when riding in the record groove. This adjustment is called "azimuth". On a UP-4 I believe this is accomplished by rotating one of the counterweights. Hopefully there are instructions for this in the manual.
jofi
24 posts
 
What you remark on is normal,when you lower the arm onto the record you will see that the arm is stable as it tracks the groove and that is what is important.
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wdt OP
12 posts
 
thank you gentlemen, I will proceed
wdt
76doublebass's avatar
76doublebass
254 posts
 
I too have a Morch UP-4 Arm,and have been out of Analog as u have.When I tried to initially install the arm I had great difficulty getting use to its movement as well.I must have fiddled with the counter weights for 1 hour plus after I balanced the arm.I used the middle weight and small weight on my cartridge with my red dot arm wand,plus used the smallest for the VTF.The smallest one I
rotated one full turn to estimate .5 gram tracking force.
I'm soon going to buy an inexpensive VTF Gauge,since the one on the Morch seems very awkward.But as you lower arm down you can tell if azmith is close by seeing how
it rides in the groove.It is a delicate balancing act,since the last arm I had was plug and play a Sumiko FT-3 Arm.
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wdt OP
12 posts
 
Thanks 76doublebass,
I got a lot done last night. Learned a lot. I can't imagine doing what I did without a vtf scale, I bought a good digital one in preparation for this and can't imagine last night without it. Every time I was making an azimuth adjustment( and still need to fiddle further) I would change the weighting on the cart unknowingly. It's a dog chasing it's tail story for sure with all this. I have a blue precision arm and used all three weights. The sound is proving to be well worth it though, music sounds real again!

thx again,wd
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