Cartridge alignment - the Mint LP Best Tractor

Recently on another forum I came across discussion of the Mint LP Best Tractor and upon further investigation of this product decided that I liked the principle and ordered one for myself.

The tractor is custom made for a particular arm/table combination and allows very precise alignment of the cantilever and setting of the correct overhang which by locking the effective length to the design parameter then allows correct cantilever alignment at the designed null points.

It is supplied with a magnifying glass, which is most definitely needed and a very comprehensive set of instructions.

It is extremely important to have good lighting as the alignment process utilises parallax to ensure correct viewing angle when aligning.

Ensuring that I had sufficient time to complete the process, reading the instructions carefully beforehand and setting everything up to enable ease of working all contributed to a most satisfying result.

Whilst my original setup was quite close, the alignment of any stylus profile other than conical (and even that will suffer from incorrect alignment of the cantilever) is microscopically critical and the closer it can be to correct the better the audible result should be.

Having taken some couple of hours making adjustment I settled back to enjoy the results and they were certainly audible, sufficiently so that a day later, knowing that I had "near enoughed" one or two steps, I repeated the process with a little more diligence - getting the stylus right on the line rather than next to it sort of thing.

On the second run through I found the whole procedure much quicker (found most of the wrong things to do the first time through ) and the improvement, whilst not as great as initially, was still audible.

The most difficult part I found was setting the overhang, due to my cartridge having a rather low body and having to be well down to see it while still seeing the line, OTOH, it has a nice line down the front to check verticality and a good gap through the front to view the critical cantilever alignment.

The improvements I noted were what one would expect from improved alignment, in a nutshell, more focused, cleaner and more detailed, with better separation of channels, instruments and vocals and increased sense of the recording venue.

I have used a number of different protractors in the past and this one has provided by the far the best results.

I would have been happy with the results had they been due to a cartridge upgrade and knowing that they are from releasing the potential of my current one sweetens the deal greatly.

www.mintlp.com/best.htm#impt - for more information - browse the systems and comments.

I found Mr Yip to be most helpful and obliging, his communication first rate and his packaging very good - a very satisfying experience all round.

Hi Bluewolf,

you certainly seem to be having communication difficulties.

I cannot answer for either of these people, but I do recall that my first attempt to contact Mr Yip was unsuccessful, IIRC due to overdiligence of his email provider in filtering incoming mail.

I was ultimately successful by using the same provider.  

Have you attempted contact with either using an alternative email address yourself ?

Since you are HK resident, perhaps you frequent R33 ? - Mr Yip was personally known to JC of R33, a former HK resident now living in Sydney.  

Perhaps Mr Yip might be reachable via R33 ?

I assumed with you being in HK that you were a chinese speaker, if that is not so then R33 (http://www.review33.com/) will not help you much.

Otherwise give me your email address by PM and I will forward it if possible, with a request for contact re sale.

BTW it will be necessary for him to have or be able to obtain, both the spindle to pivot centre distance of your arm and the effective length or the nominal overhang.

It is not possible to construct the arc without.  

If these are not known then perhaps the Feickert tool might suit you - it is more expensive than the Mint protractor but universal (so I am led to believe) in application.