September 2000

The World Famous
Cartridge Alignment Protractor
Review By Steven R. Rochlin

Click here to download the PDF.

  For many years we here at Enjoy the Music.com have been giving away, literally, thousands of our free cartridge alignment protractors to our worldwide friends. Having a properly aligned cartridge not only reduces distortion and gives the best music reproduction, it also insures the least amount of damage to the vinyl's grooves. To download your own free Cartridge Alignment Protractor, please click the image above.

Once you have printed the Protractor it is very easy to use. Simply loosen the bolts that connect the cartridge to your tonearm. Then place the Protractor on your turntable with the hole on the protractor firmly into your turntable's spindle hole. Then simply align the cartridge so that the needle is directly on the center dot and the cartridge body itself is parallel with the parallel lines. Once the needle is precisely on the dot in the center of the parallel lines you have an aligned needle.

Well, maybe it is not that easy as without moving the alignment protractor or cartridge also check for proper alignment with the second center dot and parallel lines. What you may find is that you will need to slightly move the Protractor Alignment tool, and of course your cartridge accordingly, until your cartridge is perfectly aligned as compared with both sets of dots and lines. This may take a few tries, but fear not as eventually everything will line up with both points. Once that is done simply tighten the screws to secure your cartridge to the tonearm and double check that you did not move the cartridge when tightening the screws.

As always... Enjoy the music!

Steven R. Rochlin