Analog Corner #312: WallyTools & the WallyReference

April 06, 2023 / By mobanmarket

Held every November in normal times, the annual Warsaw Audio Video Show is among the world’s largest. I first attended a decade ago, in 2011, and was amazed by both the number of attendees—more than 10,000 people—and demographics that skewed young and included many families. That show was bigger and better-attended than any I’ve been to in America.

The show organizers had arranged for my travel and hotel accommodations in exchange for a series of turntable setup seminars, which seemed like a fair deal.

Upon my arrival at Frederic Chopin airport, I was picked up not by someone from the show but by an individual who informed me that he and not the show organizers had paid for my trip, in exchange for setting up his turntable!

I was okay with that. For one thing, it was kind of flattering, don’t you think, for someone to fly you a third of the way around the world just to set up his turntable? I got to see the beautiful Polish countryside, have a lakeside meal at a fine restaurant, and spend some time in Torún, birthplace of Copernicus. But first I had to set up this guy’s turntable.

After an overnight flight in the cheap seats, I was jetlagged, and my ears arrived clogged and ringing—and not for me and my gal. But no matter! I went in for an instrument landing, relying on gauges and not on my ears, though even with blocked eustachian tubes it was obvious that the Ortofon A90 had been set up incorrectly.

Ortofon’s Replicant 100 stylus is sensitive to SRA. Incorrectly set up, the A90 can sound hard, bright, gritty, and etchy. More than a few reviews of that revolutionary selective laser–melt body cartridge revealed the reviewer’s bad setup and not the cartridge’s sonic performance.

Once I’d adjusted everything, using a USB microscope and tools manufactured by and knowledge supplied by my late Poland-born mentor Wally Malewicz, I knew it was going to sound much better before I even played a track. It did. Money well spent, my grateful host said after playing a few demo tracks.

As an audiophile I’m a listener, but when setting up a phono cartridge, I believe in using measurements and not doing it “by ear”—though a final tweak by ear can often be useful, especially setting tracking force (VTF) and sometimes stylus rake angle (SRA). Setting up a high-performance phono cartridge entirely by eye or by ear is not acceptable when you’ve spent thousands of dollars.

Ideally, you shouldn’t even buy a cartridge without an instrument inspection. Without a microscope, you can’t even be certain of correct stylus/ cantilever manufacture. When that’s out of spec, as it too often is, you can set the arm parallel to the record surface and listen all you want and never get SRA set to 92° or 93°. Furthermore, adjusting the cantilever so that it’s perpendicular to the record surface does not guarantee correct azimuth adjustment. And making small azimuth adjustments by ear is hardly reliable.

Tools allow for other critical diagnostics. At a show in Copenhagen in front of hundreds of audiophiles, Wally’s original antiskating device demonstrated that the arm I had been given to set up had damage to its vertical bearing: Instead of swinging freely horizontally, it stuck in place, probably a victim of shipping damage. At a show in Trondheim, I discovered, also in front of a large crowd, that the pivot-to-spindle template supplied by another arm manufacturer allowed for far too much play to be reliable. The headshell slots weren’t long enough to compensate and properly set overhang.

Back home, I helped a local vinyl enthusiast who’d ended up with a skewed cantilever on a circa $10,000 cartridge he’d twice returned to the factory for “realignment.” But it wasn’t the cartridge manufacturer’s fault: A damaged arm bearing was applying enormous antiskating force, even with antiskating turned off. I discovered this with the WallySkater tool. The WAM Engineering LLC website (wallyanalog.com) is a repository of outstanding science- and mathematics-based turntable setup information, with many useful videos including one that finally explains skating conclusively.

The New Generation of Wallytools
Wally has passed, but today, Wally’s part-time assistant J.R. Boisclair and Wally’s son Andrzej, a mechanical engineer who in his day job oversees projects more critical than the development and refinement of turntable setup tools, continue to develop new, improved devices that I find indispensable, beginning with the new WallyReference, which is designed to insure that as a setup starting point, the cartridge is parallel to the record surface along both longitudinal and transverse axes, though these probably will not be the final settings of VTA and azimuth.

Here’s how I use these tools to produce foolproof setups while at the same time diagnosing any mechanical arm failures and basic cartridge manufacturing issues. If you spend $200 on a cartridge, you’re probably not going to spend a great deal more than that on these tools. But if you’ve dropped a few thousand dollars or more on a cartridge—and especially if you’ve invested five figures—and you are doing your own setup, buying and using these tools makes a great deal of sense. Every audio club ought to invest in and have them at the ready when a member needs them to set up a new cartridge.

Before I get started, please note that these instructions are simplified for the purposes of this column and do not apply to “rolling” unipivot arms.

The WallyReference
Install the cartridge in the headshell approximately centered in the slots—alignment is not important at this stage, and it’s not time yet to attach the cartridge clips—and then place a disposable, average-thickness LP on the platter. If your ‘table has a vacuum hold-down, turn it on. If it uses a platter clamp or weight, install it. Using a reliable digital stylus force gauge, set VTF in the middle of the recommended tracking-force range.

Using the supplied “stand up” height gauge, measure the distance from the record surface to the headshell’s lower surface.

The WallyReference is a 16mm-tall device that comes with shims. With the cartridge lowered, stylus sitting in the record groove (but turntable not turning!), use the “standup” height gauge supplied with the WallyReference to measure the distance from the record surface to the headshell’s lower surface. If the measured height is 16mm, you’re all set, but if it’s more (I can’t recall encountering a cartridge that was less), locate the appropriate shims (supplied) to make up the difference. Now, remove the cartridge and affix the WallyReference (with shims) to the headshell.

The WallyReference shows transverse (azimuth) at an angle relative to the record surface.

No space between the WallyReference and the record shows that the transverse (azimuth) axis is now parallel. Notice the shim between the headshell and the WallyReference, compensating for the taller cartridge.

Now adjust arm height so both the front and rear edges of the WallyReference blade rest longitudinally on the record surface. Adjust azimuth (however that’s done with your arm) to ensure that the blades sit flat laterally—transversely—on the platter surface and are not lifted on either side.

Now you can remove the WallyReference and shims and reinstall your cartridge knowing that even if your armtube is tapered, the headshell is parallel to the record surface. Note the arm-pillar height and azimuth settings, and if they aren’t marked, use a Sharpie or some other marker to mark the locations. Now you can play with VTA/SRA and azimuth all you want and easily and reliably return to the original settings.

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