Acoustical Systems SMARTstylus

[MylesBAstor]

As I said, this was an expensive RMAF! I had wanted to play with this tool for a while and finally got ahold of one. Seemed really handy for those not wanting to mess around with a digital microscope.



"The SMARTstylus is the very first template allowing for setting ALL geometric parameters of the cartridge - azimuth, SRA and VTA !! - fast and accurate within minutes.
Further it allows for accurate setting of horizontal arm wand."

[MylesBAstor]

[philb7777]

Myles, I bought one at RMAF too. Gonna mess around with it this afternoon. Let me know what you think about it and your user experience. I will do the same...

[philb7777]

Been playing around with my Smart Stylus. Either I am dumb or.......

It appears the SmartStylus is next to impossible to set SRA with tonearms that have the tonearm lift bar at the head shell. The lift at the headshell prevents getting exact focus for the SRA line and the stylus due to the inability to get the cartridge body close to the SmartStylus. Definitely a design flaw in my opinion. They should put a disclaimer that the Smart Stylus won't work as described on tonearms with headshellls with an arm lift on them.

As with any tool like this, a definite learning curve exists. I will still experiment but so far I am not terribly impressed.

[MylesBAstor]

Haven't tried everything yet but I think you could put the block behind the headshell too. I don't know of any headshell without an arm lift. Some might be able to be removed but none that I know without any at all.

Some cartridges come with recommended VTA angle so that jig's lines come in handy too.

As far as azimuth. In another thread, someone raised the question whether we should be going by what is level or what something like the Foz or Feickert read out? I think there is something to the former because if the cartridge's say crosstalk is way off. Is there a defect in the stylus insertion into the cantilever or an issue with the coils?

[Socrates]

Did you forget the Breuer Arm Myles?--it never came with any finger lift

Soc

[MylesBAstor]

Obviously. Not a lot of distribution in the States.

My VPI also comes with a detachable arm lift too.

[philb7777]

Unfortunately my tonearm has an angled headshell from the tonearm tube. I prevents getting close to the cart body with the Smart Stylus behind the headshell too. Look forward to any tricks you may discover. I will keep experimenting too.