Cantilever alignment

[gary f]

I have a Denon DL-110 cartridge and the cantilever is slightly off center to the right (see drawing of bottom view). When aligning my cart, should I align with the catilever as a reference instead of using the cartridge body? Do you know what I mean?
Is there any problems with that?

Can I put the cantiliver back to the center? My guess is I should not touch it because I could damage it. It is not very much to the right, but it is clearly not perfectly centered also.

F

[federico moreno]

Yes, Gary, always is better to align the cantilever than the cartrtidge body, though it´s harder too.
Mirrored protractors, or some reflective surface, are useful for the task.
Better not try to realign the cantilever... I have tried

[sreten]

Hi,

It takes a brave (+foolish) man to try and centre a cantilever.

First check that it doesn't run straight with bias applied, it might.

If it doesn't it is best to set tracking angle to the angle of the
cantilever, not the catridge body, this minimises tracing distortion.

sreten.

[federico moreno]

It takes a brave (+foolish) man to try and centre a cantilever.

jejeje, and worst of all, using my scarce teeth

Now, seriously, the difference between a good alignment -using the cantilever, and not the cart body, as reference- is incredible.
I have some Stanton Trackmaster that I`m currently using with an adapted ¨naked¨ stylus, a la KAB; that arrangement exposes the cantilever in a great way, making alignment extremely easy.
You practically can superimpose the cantilever and the main line of the protractor, watching from above to obtain a perfect match.
The difference when tracing the inner tracks is night and day.

In my other carts, perfect alignment of the cantilever is more difficult, and sometimes I resort to cart body alignment.

[gary f]

First check that it doesn't run straight with bias applied, it might.

How do I do that?
Bias? Are you talking about anti-skate?
This sentence is not very clear to me, I think you are beyond my technical knowledge on this one Sreten. :-)

EDIT: Sorry, I think I understand. Do you mean that when the cart is running, the bias (anti-skate) force could bring the cantilever to the center.
F

[bulgin]

Hi Gary

This is not a good situation. For some reason or other, Denons seem to have either very brittle and fragile cantilevers or cannot survive an unintentional hard landing or miscue. There are three Denons here now (2xDL103's and a 110) and 2 have your problem and the owner of the 110 tried to re-align it and thge cantilever broke off.

Theoretically, if you are leaving it misaligned, you should adjust the cart so that the cantilver aligns with your protractor but how to do this could be difficult. Perhaps it should go for repairs?

bulgin

[sreten]

Originally posted by gary f

EDIT:
Sorry, I think I understand. Do you mean that when the cart is running,
the bias (anti-skate) force could bring the cantilever to the center.
F

Hi, Yes, /sreten.

[gary f]

Ok, I did a quick check up yesterday evening. First, as Sreten said, the cantilever is more centered when it is on a record, and the offset vary a bit with the amount of anti-skate force applied. Still, it is a bit offset with the correct force, but I managed to align the cantilever correctly with a protractor. Thanks.
And I will NOT try to put the cantilever in the center after what you guys said.

F