Uni-Protractor Set tonearm alignment

[turntable]

Gene

Daniel tells me mine is with the freight company and should be leaving over the weekend.
Yours can't be too far away

cheers

[Gene]

Originally Posted by turntable

Gene

Daniel tells me mine is with the freight company and should be leaving over the weekend.
Yours can't be too far away

cheers

I received my tracking # so hopefully, it will arrive to NYC very soon. The build quality seems really great. I have the MINT but it is way too difficult to see the cantilever with the supplied loupe with my Grado Statement1 cartridge. I asked Yip but he did not reply to my question regarding possibly a different loupe.

[Puma Cat]

I just received my email from Daniel yesterday that my unit was serial no 40 as they were ramping up their second production run. I sent him my money today, so I am hoping mine will go out in a week or so.

[Gene]

My Uni-Pro arrived today. It looks quite impressive. I will get to setting up my cartridge (Grado Statement1) soon and post impressions.

[Gene]

I spent an afternoon with the Uni-Pro.

The following is my own impression and opinion:

The Uni-Pro came packaged very very well. All parts were in protective pouches, etc. The PDF manual is excellent. Easy to read and follow.

I initially took a gander at my LPs and found most were not even IEC standard and the grooves ended well before. So I chose Lofgren IEC template to start.

The set up of the Uni-Pro is very simple and the build quality is top notch. I felt great to having this tool to use.

The set up using the Lofgren IEC template with the Uni-Pro was the easiest of all my jigs and protractors. The 10x loupe positioned perfectly and I was able to really see the cantilever in relation to the alignment lines. The parallax lines really help out to know that your head position is correct. So much easier than the Mint with the supplied 10x loupe which can roll easily and hit your cartridge. With the Uni-Pro loupe, it was a cinch to know for sure. It allowed for me to really see the cantilever of my Grado Statement1 which I was not able to do with Mint loupe.

The Uni-Pro also comes with nice extras like LED light which came in handy, ruler to measure P2S distance, and other goodies. Even gloves for the super obsessive! Great, as I am a bit of that.

I will try Daniel's VPI 10.5i template next and then try the Baerwarld IEC as well. To note, I did not like the sound of Lofgren IEC and reset my cartridge to VPI's own jig which has a sweeter timbre and less harshness on grand pianos. So it makes me realize Harry at VPI knows what he's doing although some here seems to consider his methods suspect.

Finally, I am not a tone arm physicist or anything like that. I am just a musician and also a recording engineer who work with my ears daily musically.

Is Uni-Pro worth the 700 bucks? That would be up to the individual and their wallet. For me, it was a great purchase as it makes setting up my cartridge so much easier with no fuss. So a yes for me but I am in NYC where a nice evening out with your date can cost a grand...

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Gene

I spent an afternoon with the Uni-Pro.

The following is my own impression and opinion:

The Uni-Pro came packaged very very well. All parts were in protective pouches, etc. The PDF manual is excellent. Easy to read and follow.

I initially took a gander at my LPs and found most were not even IEC standard and the grooves ended well before. So I chose Lofgren IEC template to start.

The set up of the Uni-Pro is very simple and the build quality is top notch. I felt great to having this tool to use.

The set up using the Lofgren IEC template with the Uni-Pro was the easiest of all my jigs and protractors. The 10x loupe positioned perfectly and I was able to really see the cantilever in relation to the alignment lines. The parallax lines really help out to know that your head position is correct. So much easier than the Mint with the supplied 10x loupe which can roll easily and hit your cartridge. With the Uni-Pro loupe, it was a cinch to know for sure. It allowed for me to really see the cantilever of my Grado Statement1 which I was not able to do with Mint loupe.

The Uni-Pro also comes with nice extras like LED light which came in handy, ruler to measure P2S distance, and other goodies. Even gloves for the super obsessive! Great, as I am a bit of that.

I will try Daniel's VPI 10.5i template next and then try the Baerwarld IEC as well. To note, I did not like the sound of Lofgren IEC and reset my cartridge to VPI's own jig which has a sweeter timbre and less harshness on grand pianos. So it makes me realize Harry at VPI knows what he's doing although some here seems to consider his methods suspect.

Finally, I am not a tone arm physicist or anything like that. I am just a musician and also a recording engineer who work with my ears daily musically.

Is Uni-Pro worth the 700 bucks? That would be up to the individual and their wallet. For me, it was a great purchase as it makes setting up my cartridge so much easier with no fuss. So a yes for me but I am in NYC where a nice evening out with your date can cost a grand...

I've been corresponding with Daniel, and decided to order a Uni-template specific for my SME V and the CA Concept, and Stevenson and Baerwald IEC 'generic' templates.

My build is scheduled for April 25, so I should be receiving mine in May sometime.

[turntable]

I received mine on Thursday. I said I would be honest and open, so here it is.


First up, the packing, quality and german engineering excellence of the package is there for anyone to see. First class. You actually feel that you are purchasing something of class.

Issues for me first.

Giving out a bendy small ruler for P2S measurement is a bit of a joke IMO, regardless of .5mm accuracy. You will be more than .5mm out on the P2S measurement given the inadequacy of the ruler.
Given the entry price, a better tool should have been provided in the package like with the cheaper direct competitor, the Fiekert. It has an excellent P2S measurement device as part of the alignment tool.
This may be my oversight, however when looking initially at the photo's and given that the alignment devices in competition are Fiekert I thought the positioning arm was also the P2S measure.

Given P2S is measure is such a critical part of any alignment tool, that one was not provided is poor IMO.


back to the review

the instructions in the manual are very detailed and straight forward - excellent

This device will take you longer than the Mint or Feikert, however you IMO get much better precision than the Feikert.
The Feikert is poor with its generally fat lines painted onto steel compared to the Uni-tractor.
The Mint has always been a poor cousin to the Wally tractor and the uni tractor with its lazer etching is a lot better than the Mint's lines under the mirror approach.

It was easier to align the stylus point onto the exact lazer dot on the uni template compared to either Mint or Feikert. That is the beauty about the lazer etching.
I struggled a little bit with the two etched lines on either side of the middle line, in how they curve slightly due to the magnification. like anything, after a bit of practice it got easier.

Once that was done, you were complete. two points vs one point. Frankly, with the Mint. If you aligned the initial null point perfectly, I always found the 2nd one lined up as well. So the Uni-tractor having only one meassure point is no big deal, you just need to concentrate on getting it correct up front.

The Azimuth tool was cook and very good to use next to the tonearm to see how level the tonearm was.

- non standard uni-templates.

I guess a lot of people are interested in the specific aligment templates. to quote Daniel

the EA-3 template is based on the EA-3's geometry, but a bit
"optimized" by myself - so kind of "my brew".
- same for Graham and Ortofon - very slight corrections, but better
distortion figures than manufacturer's specs.

I used the Exclusive EA-3/10 alignment template to compare with the Stevenson alignment from Mint. Yes, I know, not really a fair comparison. The Stevenson vs Stevenson will come later.

I buy mostly modern LP's but many have music right to the inside label. I much prefer Stevenson/VPI type alignment than L or B. Mainly due to the fact that the inner 3rd of any LP(which is getting smaller and smaller with each revolution)to my ears has the most obvious distortion compared to the rest of the LP. Overall the slight increase in brightness on the 1st 3rd is more than compensated with the better sound of the last 3rd with Stevenson. Right, my listening bias are out of the way.

The EA-3 alignment was more relaxed in the first 3rd vs Stevenson and as good ads B or L from memory. It was better sounding than either B or L in the last 3rd to my ears. Not quite as good as Stevenson, but overall something I can live with. I'll go back to Stevenson in a couple of weeks.

My Mint tractors will be soon for sale on audiogon. The Feikert I am afraid cannot be sold ATM as detailed above. I believe the adequate P2S tool should be part of the Uni-Tractor price given its importance for correct alignment, not offered as it seems to be next week as an additional extra. I would be interested if anyone else shares my view on this or I am out of line.

Overrall a 1st class product is the Uni-tractor and oozes quality.

[Gene]

Still really liking the sound of my Grado Statement 1 set up with the Uni and Daniel's template for the 10.5i arm.

[jpetek]

Hi,

I am new here and I live in Germany. I have a Pioneer Exclusive P10 with S tonearm.
My Problem is I do not know what are the Manufactory settings for this tonearm (overhang, offset, length ....) At the moment I use the Feickert with Stevenson. Do you think this is a good idea?

Thanks for your help

best regards

Josef

[miner]

Take a look at VinylEngine.com for the settings.