cantilever misalignment sme 3009 S2 imp; thorens 160 super TT

[yourmomm]

hi-i have just inherited a goldring 1012gx cartridge on an sme 3009 S2 improved fixed headshell arm, mounted on a thorens 160 super TT.

the cantilever seems to have been "pulled" toward the outer side of the platter, so that it sits in the cartridge at quite an angle. it is obviously pulled more near the beginning of a record than at the end, where the cantilever seems more centred.

i have checked alignment-i cannot move the arm any further forward on the deck using the appropriate adjustment screws (already at maximum), and the armboard has been drilled in the correct place according to the thorens template. normally, simply rotating the cartridge itself in the headshell would sort the problem, but this sme headshell, like most others i have seen, does not have mounting slots so i could do this-

do forumites have any ideas of what i can do to correct this misalignment propblem?!

many thanks

[analog_sa]

Not quite clear from your post if it's misalignment or a damaged cantilever. If damaged, replace stylus, it won't track well anyway.

[Bobken]

Hi,

Have you tried an (even simple) alignment protractor to ensure that the arm has been fitted/adjusted correctly in relation to the turntable?

IIRC, these SME arms will allow quite a lot of adjustment (towards/away from the platter) at their bases in order to obtain the best results.

If I understand your description correctly, I would have expected excessive bias settings to be a possible cause for this kind of problem, but excessive bias would give the reverse effect than (I think!) you have described.

Too much bias will tend to offset the stylus towards the middle of the TT, and this will vary across the record, because the arm is pulled outwards towards the record's edge by the bias compensator, whilst the grooves are trying to pull the stylus towards the centre of the record.

If when carefully lowering a stylus on to a revolving record part way through (i.e. not at the start grooves which are not very concentric), and the stylus immediately moves inwards compared to when it is not in the groove, this would suggest too much bias being applied to the arm. However, from your description, it seems like you have the opposite problem, but it is not (normally) possible to have a negative bias setting here, and shouldn't be necessary.

Regards,

[Panicos K]

Hi,I suspect that previous user accidentally damaged the cantilever by hitting the outer side of a record.Best thing to do is buy a new stylus and align the SME correctly.It is not easy,or a good idea to align the cartridge according to the damaged cantilever's angle.