Set-Up Tips

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Everything You Know About Skating Is Wrong!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 11, 2020  |  54 comments
Well, that’s a clickbait headline for sure, but unlike most it’s probably true, especially if you’ve taken my word on this.

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Set-Up Accessory ReviewsSet-Up Tips
WAM Engineering's New, Improved WallySkater V2.1
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 02, 2020  |  44 comments
Skating, a pivoted tonearm’s tendency to “skate” towards the record center is real, is not created by “centripetal force” and is not best ignored because compensating for it somehow worsens sonic performance.

If you do not apply some kind of skating counterforce, the stylus will ride the inner groove throughout the record side, producing uneven record and stylus wear. And it can’t possibly improve record playback sound.

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NewsSet-Up Accessory ReviewsSet-Up Tips
WallyTools Are Back From The New WAM Engineering
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 21, 2020  |  12 comments
WAM Engineering's new universal WallyTractor is now available from the newly formed company, a partnership between the late Wally Malewicz's son Andrzej, himself a mechanical engineer and Wally's former production assistant J.R. Boisclair. They've just launched the Wallyanalog website where you will find complete details of the new $395 universal WallyTractor and the available services the Santa Rosa, CA based company provides.

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NewsSet-Up Tips
Wally Tools Returning And Some N.O.S. Available Now!
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 23, 2019  |  2 comments
At the San Francisco Audiophile Society meeting late September where I appeared and played records for a few hours (and had a blast), J.R. Boisclair was selling what remained of Wally Malewicz's "Wally Tools".

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Set-Up Tips
Video Showing Setting Stylus Rake Angle Using a Digital USB Microscope
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 23, 2017  |  45 comments
This video shows you how to use a digital USB microscope to set stylus rake angle (SRA) to 92 degrees, which is considered to be the best angle to start with, followed by adjusting "by ear". Why 92 degrees? It's all explained in an article you can download as a PDF file at this analogPlanet.com link.

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Set-Up Tips
Tone Arm Geometry 101
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 16, 2015  |  18 comments
This drawing explains tone arm basic geometry. Thanks to Wally Malewicz for providing it. So let’s go through it together.

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Set-Up Tips
Fozgometer Owner Alert !
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 09, 2015  |  57 comments
If you own and use a Fozgometer to set azimuth you must calibrate the unit or your results will not be accurate. I had stopped using my Fozgometer and instead was setting azimuth using a digital oscilloscope, which is 100% accurate and also gives you precise crosstalk voltages.

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Set-Up Tips
UNI-DIN Versus Löfgren B Just to Clarify
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 08, 2014  |  49 comments
In the Rocky Mountain Wrap Up I wrote about the UNI-DIN curve versus Löfgren but a picture (or a graph in this case prepared by WAM Engineering's Wally Malewicz) is worth a 1000 words.

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Set-Up Tips
Tri-Planar Tonearm Owner Alert!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2013  |  28 comments
Back in the fall of 2008 I attend an audio show in Trondheim, Norway where I presented two turntable set-up seminars. The show organizers procured for me a Tri-Planar tonearm mounted on a turntable, the brand of which I forget.

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Set-Up Tips
Setting "Overhang" Using a "Double Null Point Grid" Type Alignment Gauge
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 21, 2013  |  8 comments
The animated graphic here is taken from the DVD "21st Century Vinyl: Michael Fremer's Practical Guide to Turntable Set-up". The gauge is similar to the kind supplied by Pro-Ject and other turntable manufacturers. It's accuracy is predicated upon the correct pivot-to-spindle for the particular tonearm.

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Set-Up Tips
Stylus Zenith Angle: A Heretofore Neglected Set-up Parameter Considered
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 19, 2014  |  21 comments
How did this one get neglected? Take a look at the photo supplied by WAM engineering. It shows a stylus in a cantilever. Notice it has been affixed into the cantilever at an angle instead of being parallel to the cantilever. If you use the cantilever to set the zenith angle on this cartridge, which is what I and everyone else recommends, the stylus will not be tangential to the grooves at the null points though it might accidentally be so somewhere else.

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