Rega Turntable - Cartridge Upgrade
the_lhc:
I bit the bullet and fitted my 2M Red this afternoon. Used the Stupid Protractor from the site mention earlier in the thread but didn't find it especially useful, it's a set of parallel lines in a grid that you're supposed to line the cartridge up with.
The Avid ?. If so how did you download a mirrored plate !!.
floyd droid:
the_lhc:I bit the bullet and fitted my 2M Red this afternoon. Used the Stupid Protractor from the site mention earlier in the thread but didn't find it especially useful, it's a set of parallel lines in a grid that you're supposed to line the cartridge up with.The Avid ?. If so how did you download a mirrored plate !!.
No, just the paper ones from vinylengine.com, I couldn't get them to come out exactly the right size (the scale line should have been 180mm, mine came out at around 179.6mm, although I was measuring that with a plastic ruler!), so I don't know exactly how accurate it would have been anyway. I don't think I'd have known what to do with the mirro ones anyway...
Guesswork, we loves it!
The purpose of the mirror is for azimuth adjustment.
Rega arms don't have this ability to adjust azimuth so the mirror is not really useful.
Also azimuth adjustment is supposed to be based on how 'vertical' the stylus (not the cartridge body) is when playing. This is always going to be a bit different to when the stylus is at rest on a mirror due to it having no groove wall forces acting on it.
Then there is VTA on which subject there are a thousand different opinions and probably as many different cutter head angles used when all the different records were originally cut!
It is just possible that once - someone, somewhere, at some time - played an LP at exactly the correct VTA but it was probably by pure fluke and I doubt the user was aware of it.
Sorry chebby but not so. The mirror is to aid in parallax error and make it easier to see if the cartridge body is aligned to the lines correctly,due to the fact some cartridges are of an awkward shape to line up. Well thats how i read it anyways. How i see it Avid have taken the SME tool and pimped it, just my thoughts on that one.
Dont know the Avid. I have seen mirrors suggested for azimuth adjustment though...
I used the correct Vinyl Engine arc protractors and (keeping the cartridge body square in the headshell and the headshell square in the grid) adjust until the stylus is touching down on the arc at all points.
It is the headshell that is lined up on the grid and the the cartridge is just kept parallel in it.
(Move cartridge back and forth in slots without twisting it off parallel aided visually by position of fixing bolt ends and cartridge pins and the 'notch' at the front to aid the eye if the cartridge body is a bit of a 'difficult' shape.)
Remember to re-check/re-adjust tracking weight after the final alignment is set and apply anti-skate.
Wish i had edited my post chebby, it started off a tad holier than thou, sorry mate.
There is so much geeky nonsense out there regarding cartridge set up,well its small wonder folk get in a lather about it.
shiggieb - i am pleased to see your demo was a success - i dont think the Rega P3-24 will disappoint in the slightest - whereas my old Planar 2 was always lacking when i used it, the P3-24 is a lovely item for the outlay. with a Ortofon Bronze it should even outperform my blue. I look forward to hearing how it sounds at home.
My new 2M blue does seem to be getting better at the moment, last saturday i got a day on my own which gave proper time to chill out and listen to it and run it in a little. Also i like it visually too. Ortofon make great looking cartridges too.
One of the great things about vinyl i think is that you can find very cheap copies in great condition to listen to. Its a great way to try new music you are not too familiar with.
Yes I must admit the 2M's quite a handsome chap after the skinny looks of the 5E.
The only problem with changing this cartridge is I think I'm now feeling the first itches of upgraditis.
I keep thinking "if just changing the cartridge makes it sound that good, imagine if I got a new turntable, with a better phono stage and a dedicated stereo amp and and...".
Damn, I've managed to avoid this for TEN YEARS!
crusaderlord:Also i like it visually too. Ortofon make great looking cartridges...
Yeah they also seem made to visually match the shape of the Rega headshell....
(Spoilt a little by the 2M Red writing on the side from when I upgraded. Now owned by 'True Blue' which is apt.)
chebby - your own upgrade at the time (a fair while back now) was partly responsible for my own - although it took me a while to get there as it was slightly lower priority than the wadia / dac.
however it is now done and baring me wanting to upgrade / change all over again (noting your Harbeth post chebby !) i am very happy with all the sources i have now.
i like the variety me, not limiting myself to one source is enjoyable - for instance going back to playing vinyl after a long absence was actually really fun and part of the hobby experience.
since i got my turntable i have pretty much only played my small vinyl collection during my shortish stints available for music playing
now this isnt because vinyl sound better or the fact i have better albums than cd's (i dont) but its the fact that i really enjoy getting out the record and putting on the table and watching it play while i listen
i never really thought that the action bit was very important until now - i think i must be a little strange 
crusaderlord:since i got my turntable i have pretty much only played my small vinyl collection during my shortish stints available for music playing now this isnt because vinyl sound better or the fact i have better albums than cd's (i dont) but its the fact that i really enjoy getting out the record and putting on the table and watching it play while i listen i never really thought that the action bit was very important until now - i think i must be a little strange
Join the club, there's something satisfying about putting the stylus on the record. LP covers are just more interesting than CD covers.
Well it arrived last week and I've been listening to (and buying!) more vinyl like a man possessed ever since. The sound is everything I was hoping for. The detail retrieval is up there with my CD192, and that unquantifiable vinyl-y warmth and organic loveliness is there in spades. Even my long suffering noise averse wife has started listening to records when I'm not looking!
I've even been doing geeky side by side comparisons of the same album on LP and CD, switching between channels. The remaster of The Joshua Tree is almost indistinguishable, a 35 year old copy of Tapestry is as clear as last year's CD remaster, and much more musical, and Hot Rocks by The Stones sounds rich and full, as opposed to weedy and tinny on CD. And for the concept album fans, Misplaced Childhood is glorious in its 1980s self reverential indulgence.
In case you were wondering, I'm very happy with the purchase.
I bit the bullet and fitted my 2M Red this afternoon. Used the Stupid Protractor from the site mention earlier in the thread but didn't find it especially useful, it's a set of parallel lines in a grid that you're supposed to line the cartridge up with.
The 2M cartridge doesn't have a pair of parallel lines on its entire body! The very top plate is square, however once mounted on the Debut II's tonearm you can't see the top plate as it's narrower than the tonearm is! So I'm trying to align angled edges with square lines, great.
The old cartridge was mounted with the screw mounts bang up against the front of the mounting points, so I did the same with the 2M. I know you're supposed to faff about with overhangs and stuff like that but it looked about as aligned as I thought I could get it so I tried it out (on an old Yetties disc that I bought for a laugh first of course, I'm not daft!).
Sounds bloody marvellous (well the Yetties don't but I tried some other stuff afterwards)! As far as the alignment goes I listened for uneven output between the two channels, all sounded pretty even and tried to listen for evidence of distortion in acoustic instruments, started off with Welcome to My World from a 70's Jim Reeves box set that I've listened to quite a lot (it's the tune from the Thomas Cook adverts), sounded great, although close to the speakers there appeared to be some distortion in the piano and guitar, so I switched to Medeski, Martin and Wood's cover of Hey Joe from the Note Blue double vinyl I've got, it's piano, acoustic double bass and drums, sounds perfect, no distortion on the piano notes at all, so what I was hearing before was clearly on the Jim Reeves recording, which isn't that surprising, they'd all be pre-1964.
Overall, very pleased, it's possibly a little quieter than the 5E that came with the turntable, but I understand cartridges need some running in time (leave your opinions at the door please...), so I'll see if that changes with time, for now I'm just turning the amp up a little bit more. Separation, placement of instruments and soundstaging are all improved, beyond that I haven't really listened for long enough to make any more judgments, but so far I'm happy. Surface noise seems reduced as well, but that might be my imagination, I never really noticed it much anyway.
And cartridge alignment? Pfff, piece of pie...
No signature worth mentioning...