Ed Lansink
Calibrating your turntable’s cartridge alignment is an important process for getting a detailed, clear, and accurate tone.
You should recalibrate the alignment any time you replace the cartridge, although it’s also worth doing every couple of months, especially if you hear the tone of your records change over time.
To calibrate the alignment of your turntable cartridge, you’re going to need some kind of alignment tool (similar to a ruler) and a screwdriver.
Then, follow these steps:
The process can be fiddly, so make sure you have a steady hand, and be patient! The rest of this guide shares a more detailed walkthrough to help you calibrate your phono cartridge perfectly to prevent any tracking error.
Cartridge alignment simply refers to the angle of the cartridge body (and stylus) in relation to the tonearm and headshell. It also affects the relationship between the stylus and the grooves. The position is dictated by how the cartridge is mounted on the tonearm.
Precise alignment is important as it dictates how the stylus is dragged through the groove information, thus affecting both the frequencies (tone) and stereo balance of a record.
The cartridge body needs to be positioned at a 90-degree angle to the grooves to achieve the least amount of tracking error for the most accurate sound reproduction. It’s hard to achieve accurate cartridge alignment from guesswork, so a specialized alignment tool (an alignment protractor) is needed.
In an ideal situation, the cartridge’s stylus would remain in the center of a record’s groove perfectly as it played without creating any distortion or mistracking. However, if you do an accurate calibration, then it creates minimal distortion and provides the best listening experience.
However, records are cut using a tonearm with a 90-degree angle from the surface, meaning there is a high margin of error when tracking, even with perfect cart alignment.
Note: Whilst most guides (and this one) suggest that you align the cartridge’s sides to the protractor grid, this might not always work. Not all cartridge bodies have parallel sides and use unbalanced designs. In this case, it’s a matter of aligning the cantilever shaft (the rod at which end you find the needle tip) to be parallel with the alignment grid. You’ll need a magnifying glass and light to do this as accurately as possible with the naked eye.
The main reason for calibrating alignment is to reduce inner groove distortion and tracking errors.
If the cartridge is not aligned correctly, then it results in a thinned-out sound with narrow stereo separation. The tone will be harsh and overly bright, lacking bass. It’s one of those calibration factors that makes a more subtle difference but is definitely worth checking every now and then.
Uncalibrated cart alignment will cause a range of annoying problems with your turntable. Including accelerated wear on your stylus, distortion, and other tracking errors.
Additionally, because most cartridges use handmade components, the styluses often have a slightly random final position. This is another reason for calibrating alignment and azimuth.
When a tonearm and phono cartridge is mounted using an offset angle, it generally creates two ‘null points’ where the stylus is exactly in line with the record grooves.
At these null points, the tracking error becomes zero, meaning that no unwanted tracking distortion is created by the stylus being at an incorrect angle in the groove. If the cartridge is mounted correctly, it reduces tracking errors and ensures the turntable sounds its best.
A cartridge alignment protractor is an important tool for the precise alignment of your phono cartridge.
You might need other calibration or alignment tools to configure other parts of your turntable (like azimuth and VTA), but a protractor is the only cartridge alignment tool you need for this task.
A cartridge protractor is a simple two-dimensional ruler of sorts, that has two grids with parallel lines. This type is also called a two-point protractor, as it has two areas for measuring the alignment. One at the edge of the turntable platter, and the other close to the middle. They also tend to include an overhang gauge.
You can buy physical protractors, or print them out on paper.
You can download a variety of good printable protractors here.
If you print out your own protractor, measure the reference scale and make sure the printing is the right size. To check accurately requires exact measurements, so if the printout is larger or smaller than intended, it will create inaccurate results.
I recommend you buy a proper turntable protractor. These are affordable, and it just ensures that the measurements are perfectly accurate. Also, paper ones are easily broken or lost.
My favorite tool is this Calibration Turntable Mat, which features a range of useful measurements for calibrating your deck, including anti-skate on the flipside of the protractor.
I’ve also used this cheaper Turntable Lab Protractor, which features a mirrored surface, which can be helpful.
Alternatively, this Hudson Hi-Fi Calibration Bundle comes with some other useful tools, including a VTF scale and a VTA ruler (- more on what VTA is further down in this guide).
You only need this Calibration Protractor Mat as a protractor (my weapon of choice) and a small screwdriver that can unscrew/tighten the screws holding the cartridge to the headshell.
This particular protractor has the following features that are super handy:
Use the following steps to make sure your cartridge is perfectly aligned:
It can take some practice to get it right, so be patient!
After your stylus is aligned, it shouldn’t need to be readjusted for a long time unless you change the cartridge or stylus. However, it doesn’t hurt to check it now and then.
Standard alignment of a cartridge is one of a few steps to achieve an accurate setup. These are a few other calibration settings you’ll need to tick off
It’s worth calibrating your tracking force before you change the alignment; this helps to prevent unwanted wear from excessive needle force. Tracking force only takes a few minutes to calibrate, but it makes a big difference.
The previous section of this guide showed you how to align the side-ways alignment. However, in more advanced turntable setups, you’ll also want to check and calibrate the VTA (Vertical Tracking Angle – the vertical angle at which the needle sits in the groove) as well as the cartridge’s azimuth (the angle of the cartridge-looking at it from the front).
Check out my advanced guide on this topic here → Vertical Tracking Angle: What is it and How Do You Set It?
Some cartridges (and turntables) come with dedicated alignment charts. If you have one, these are usually the best ones, although any other turntable protractor will do the job in a pinch.
The protractor platter mat I introduced you to features a smooth side, which you can use to calibrate your turntable anti-skate. I recommend going through that step as well as part of properly setting up a turntable.
There are actually a couple of different alignment tools, each with a slightly different design. The types of turntable protractor styles available are quite a complex topic, so you only really need to think about this if you want to dive deeper into calibration. For the average user, this is probably too advanced.
The main types are: Universal 2-point protractor, sightline protractor, and arc protractors. Each one has a situation where they are more suitable:
These types of protractors also use different alignment methods. There are three common methods for aligning turntable cartridges: Stevenson, Baerwald, and Lofgren.
Each has its null points in slightly different locations.
Features an alignment closer to the spindle hole. This is designed to minimize inner groove distortion and has its inner null point and outer null point with a lower spindle distance than the others.
Baerwald Alignment is in the middle of the two and aims to make peak distortion even across the entire record surface. This alignment type uses a Baerwald protractor for calibration.
Has the most distance between its null points and the spindle. This helps to reduce tracking distortion across the whole record but has a slight preference for the outer groove.
I’ve personally found the protractor platter mat to do a solid job on multiple turntable models myself. Unless your turntable’s manual suggests something more specific, that’s a universal protractor I would recommend.
When researching cartridge calibration you will often come across the term “Tonearm Geometry”. The alignment geometry is different from deck to deck based on how they are designed.
This term refers to the series of measurements and angles (collectively known as geometries) relating to the tonearm and its positioning. When calibrating a turntable, there are several areas of importance within the tonearm geometry. These all dictate how the tonearm is positioned in relation to the vinyl record grooves, which also affects stylus positioning.
The first geometry to consider is the pivot point to spindle distance, aka mounting distance. This is relatively straightforward and describes the amount of space between the pivot point of a pivoted tonearm (the point where it rotates), and the central spindle of the turntable platter.
It’s also worth understanding the alignment geometry called ‘tonearm effective length’. This is the distance from the stylus tip to the pivot point and includes the length of the entire tonearm. This length also creates the radius of the stylus’s arc, which shows where the cartridge moves across the surface of the record.
Another key measurement is the stylus overhang. This dictates how far the stylus reaches past the point of the spindle. Setting the correct stylus overhang is important as it ensures the stylus reaches the grooves at the correct angle. Most alignment protractors (like the one I’ve used in this tutorial) have some kind of overhang gauge built in, which lets you properly align the overhang. All you need to do is move the cartridge forward or backward until it reaches the correct position.
A further area to understand is the offset angle. Most turntables use an offset angle for the cartridge so it isn’t directly parallel to the rest of the tonearm. This creates lower horizontal tracking errors.
This happens because as the stylus moves from the outer grooves to the inner grooves, it keeps the cantilever and stylus closer to the angle of the grooves. With some fully straight tonearms, you will notice slightly higher distortion as the stylus becomes slightly misaligned with the grooves because of an imperfect offset angle.
This geometry creates two null points, where the stylus is perfectly in line (perfectly tangent) with the grooves.
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I'm a passionate vinyl collector, analog fan, and lifetime enthusiast of most things audio.
On VinyliQ I help fellow vinyl collectors enjoy their hobby to the max, sharing my knowledge about and passion for vinyl.