In praise of a forum member

Spent the day giving my LP12 a service, whilst I was at it, I thought I would check the Aro set up as well, as I haven’t really touched things for about 10 years.
Decided to read up a bit first, when I discovered the posts of one Mark Dunn on the old forum. I thought I had set the Aro up properly! Completed the LP12 service in about an hour, then spent the rest of the day on the Aro. Following Mark’s advice, I’ve just completed a two hour listening session and it’s been a revelation. I thought the Aro sounded good before, but it’s really singing now. So thanks to Mark Dunn, a Texan I believe. Not even sure if he is still on here, but his advice was invaluable.

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Hi…
I have an lp12 with aro and dynavector xx2 mkii and cannot find the post of mark dunn from all those years ago… especially about bias adjustment

Could you please, please give me the thread where to find it ( I have found a great deal of other info, but even there they refer to his post, which I cannot find…)

I would be very grateful… I have a problem with a bit too much sound on the right… have adjusted VTA and tracking force ( dead on 2 grams) and have the azimuth weight shoved all the way inward and have a bit of track on the biss weight… I need some more tweaking

Have a nice day
Pieter Rodgers
Germany

…a search on the old forum for ‘Aro’ found five plus pages, so it looks like you need to look through each unless @matfff provides a direct link.

I have sent you an email.

Thank you… I am going through all the aro and Dynavector pages… that’s quite a Hassel…
So many, many :pray:

Please do not post your email address on the forum. It is not at all safe to do so on a publicly viewable forum. Any email addresses posted on here are removed as a matter of policy.

Sorry…
But it is my mail address. Won’t happen again

I think I’ve found the page by the way…

Hi matfff,

Yes, I’m still here and using the ARO.
Let me know if I can be of further help.

PS. Although I live with n Dallas Texas I’m actually an expat Brit from London.

Best regards,
Mark Dunn

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Dear all
Which of the five Pages in the old forum was the setup description on and what was the thread named?
Regards
Fred

This welcome thread had me tweaking my Aro set up with XX2 last night to make sure the ‘nurly bit’ was appropriately set as recommended. For once, I was now able to move the azimuth weight out a bit to approximately mid way to set an optimum. The end result was quite an astonishing enhancement in terms of musicality, finesse and all round foot tapping brilliance so I guess I have found the true ‘sweet spot’. Thanks for this !

It’s quite astonishing isn’t it? Spent all yesterday evening listening to ‘new’ 40 year old LP’s!

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Good to hear your still around and thanks for the help. Took me quite a while to piece it all together from the old forum using various search terms - got there in the end! Might be worth posting a recap/update on the new forum?

Yes - I wasn’t expecting that level of improvement. I’m demoing a Supercap on the Superline at present - something didn’t seem quite right before but with these tweaks my high expectations have been more than met.

I was listening to a 40 year old ‘Azimuth’ LP on ECM this morning and it was as if Norma Winstone and co. were in the lounge.

Hi Mark,

Would it be possible for you to bundle your knowledge for me and a couple of others or here?
I have upgraded my LP 12 end of last year and have dinner everything myself.
I have a lingo 4 (the newest), aro (second hand of course), Dynavector xx2 mkii (also second hand), new top plate (will have to look up what brand, came from the UK), tiger paw akula subchassis with armboard, new bottom (also don’t know what brand, but the same as the top plate if I remember correctly, could try and look it up…) and have ordered the tiger paw heavier counterweight for the aro which can be offset a bit to twist the arm a nudge…
The soundstage is a bit heavy on the right… no matter what I do, I can’t seem to get it over to the left as I want it to be (have to admit that this may be due to me seeing up the LP 12 and not a dealer who knows what he’s doing and may either have to see if everything is as should be (which it probably won’t🤷‍♂️))
I’ve tried it with Scotty azimuth all the way up to the cup, even tried it with a small weight blue tracked ( well white tack,because I haven’t got blue track) on the other side of the cup. Extra weight on the bias with the bias arm over to the fifth notch (would very much like a schematic of that, which can’t be found in the past on xv-1s from long ago…).
Have the aro pointing down a bit and have tracking force 1,99 grams…

All in all, would like to have your tweaks in an orderly post, if it isn’t too big of a hassel for you.

Kind regards
P. Rodgers ( Briton living in Germany…)

One or two spelling mistakes, but I think you’ve got the gist

Top plate is an Orpheus from vinyl passion and the foundation baseboard is also from vinyl passion. ( They also sell a piece of carbon to lodge in between these two, but I’m not sure that will fit with the tiger paw akuka sub chassis)

I just also remembered what I may have done to mess things up…
In getting the spinning plate level, I cranked the left side up a tad: my reasoning was as follows; if you put a record on the turntable the extra weight will create a downforce, so to counter that effect I raised it a tad on the left spring… this may well be the cause of a very light slant which pushed three stylus towards the right channel groove…
I will have to get the plate level and see if that does the trick.
Distance from pivot to centre of the record pin is 212 mm, which is okay and it bounces pretty well… must have a look at getting the turntable level…

Do you have a jig? Get the plinth level first. Then level the armboard or inner platter. The weight of a record has a little affect, but not much. And test several areas on your plinth top to how level or possibly warped the plinth is. I typically level my plinth on the jig with a level sitting in front of the armboard section at the front of the TT, and on the right side along the armboard length from front to back. If you use other areas on the plinth, when you level the inner platter or I prefer the armboard, it does not sit nice and level next to the plinth, it could look a little off or unlevel next to the wood plinth.

Scott

Thank you…
I don’t have a jig… (would that be easy to make? Our is quite bothersome to get under the record player…)
I tend to do it as you do: a (30 odd cm) level on the front o of the plinth and one of the sides…
I will report back (possibly by mail…)

Cheers

If you don’t have a dealer close, and you need to do your own work, just spend the money on a jig. You will be happy you did.

Scott