Not too many Acoustic Signature owners here?
- Thread starter BillK
- Start date
Thank you, Ron !
More will follow soon, as I ran into some trouble mounting the cartridge. I was out of carbon shims, and had to order from the UK. Can’t get any further before they arrive, which should be rather quickly. Don’t know why Ortofon messes with having three up raised dots on top of their cartridges. One of these dots always ends up in the sliding screw track on the headshell, making the cartridge sit with a twist, very annoying. The 0,5 mm carbon shim will prevent this.
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Hey everyone,
Yesterday I got the carbon shims I needed to continue the setup and alignment of the Ortofon Verismo cartridge on the A-S Montana Neo turntable.
After that the adjustments and the alignment was pretty straightforward. Using primarily the Wally Tools from Wally Engineering, there is not much that actually can go wrong, as long as you are very very meticulous.
The TA-5000 12” tonearm has an effective length of 309mm, so obviously I used the nearest closest alignment curve on the Wally Tractor which is 308,8mm. Also as the client have mostly new records, pressed AFTER 1990, I used the ”New Record Collection” section on the W.T. Also due to his collection I choosed to go with the ”Lofgren” curve. -Have a look
…
When the alignment was done it was time to check the bearings and set the bias to the right force. For that I used the Wally Skater, which is an awesome tool, that tells you immediately if something is not right with the tonearms bearings. In this case it was flawless !
When checking the bias force with the W.S. it was obvious that not much force was needed to apply… just a small amount and I was good to go…
Had I not have the Wally Skater to check the force, I had most likely set the bias force much too high, probably in the range of the cartridge VTF, which in this case is 2,6 grams recommended by Ortofon, so probably in the range of 2,5 on the bias knob, which had been way too much… - go figure☝!!
… -will continue in my next post…
/ Jk
Yesterday I got the carbon shims I needed to continue the setup and alignment of the Ortofon Verismo cartridge on the A-S Montana Neo turntable.
After that the adjustments and the alignment was pretty straightforward. Using primarily the Wally Tools from Wally Engineering, there is not much that actually can go wrong, as long as you are very very meticulous.
The TA-5000 12” tonearm has an effective length of 309mm, so obviously I used the nearest closest alignment curve on the Wally Tractor which is 308,8mm. Also as the client have mostly new records, pressed AFTER 1990, I used the ”New Record Collection” section on the W.T. Also due to his collection I choosed to go with the ”Lofgren” curve. -Have a look
…When the alignment was done it was time to check the bearings and set the bias to the right force. For that I used the Wally Skater, which is an awesome tool, that tells you immediately if something is not right with the tonearms bearings. In this case it was flawless
!When checking the bias force with the W.S. it was obvious that not much force was needed to apply… just a small amount and I was good to go…
Had I not have the Wally Skater to check the force, I had most likely set the bias force much too high, probably in the range of the cartridge VTF, which in this case is 2,6 grams recommended by Ortofon, so probably in the range of 2,5 on the bias knob, which had been way too much… - go figure☝!!
… -will continue in my next post…
/ Jk
Montana Neo setup continues,
As my setup of the A-S Montana Neo went on, I hooked it up to the ”third input” on my SUT, the AirTight ATH-2 Reference, and then into the first of the two MM inputs of the Momentum Phonostage. As the Ortofon Verismo (almost) has the same spec. as my Ortofon MC Diamond at 0.2mV output, I choosed the same setup on the phonostage without changing anything regarding loading, gain and such.
From the tonearm I run a long junctioned grounding cable as well as a non priced junctioned tonearm cable - just to get sound - no fancy stuff whatsoever. I was prepared to run another grounding cable from the turntables control unit, had it been necessary. However, it turned out very quiet, complete black background, no noise, no buzz or hum, no nothing. Here’s a couple of pictures of one of my grounding hubs, and the inputs / outputs of the AirTight SUT… Enjoy …
Well at this point I felt it was time to put a vinyl onto the plater…
I also put the outher sleeve ring on (which is for my SL-1200G primarily, but fits the Montana Neo as well) to make the sound and playback even more powerful. Check it out…
To summon all up, I don’t think I want the dealer to ever come and pick it up - EVER !! As I completely nailed the setup and the alignment, it is playing back the vinyls with a tremendous pondus and statement!
To be honest, I didn’t think the temporary ”chair rack” would work, but the centre of the room placement and the free space around the Montana Neo makes it sound as powerful as a TopFuel dragster goes fast. Just an amazing amount of power, timbre, and details.
I actually have to say that this took me by surprise… -a good surprise that makes me smile big-time !!! The sound is very very very good… and I will be listening as long as I can before my task is done, and the dealer picks it up for his client…
That’s all folks - hope you enjoyed it!
/ Jk
As my setup of the A-S Montana Neo went on, I hooked it up to the ”third input” on my SUT, the AirTight ATH-2 Reference, and then into the first of the two MM inputs of the Momentum Phonostage. As the Ortofon Verismo (almost) has the same spec. as my Ortofon MC Diamond at 0.2mV output, I choosed the same setup on the phonostage without changing anything regarding loading, gain and such.
From the tonearm I run a long junctioned grounding cable as well as a non priced junctioned tonearm cable - just to get sound - no fancy stuff whatsoever. I was prepared to run another grounding cable from the turntables control unit, had it been necessary. However, it turned out very quiet, complete black background, no noise, no buzz or hum, no nothing. Here’s a couple of pictures of one of my grounding hubs, and the inputs / outputs of the AirTight SUT… Enjoy
…Well at this point I felt it was time to put a vinyl onto the plater…
I also put the outher sleeve ring on (which is for my SL-1200G primarily, but fits the Montana Neo as well) to make the sound and playback even more powerful. Check it out…
To summon all up, I don’t think I want the dealer to ever come and pick it up - EVER
!! As I completely nailed the setup and the alignment, it is playing back the vinyls with a tremendous pondus and statement!To be honest, I didn’t think the temporary ”chair rack” would work, but the centre of the room placement and the free space around the Montana Neo makes it sound as powerful as a TopFuel dragster goes fast. Just an amazing amount of power, timbre, and details.
I actually have to say that this took me by surprise… -a good surprise that makes me smile big-time
!!! The sound is very very very good… and I will be listening as long as I can before my task is done, and the dealer picks it up for his client…That’s all folks - hope you enjoyed it!
/ Jk
Is this picture taken after setting the correct anti sakting?
When checking the bias force with the W.S. it was obvious that not much force was needed to apply… just a small amount and I was good to go…
That’s good because there is no bias force applied to the tonearm in the picture.No.
More to show I use the Wally Skater as a tool to set the bias. Hope that helps
Hey everyone,
Things are back in order. The Montana Neo is on it’s way to the client somewhere in Sweden, and it seems I have to live with what I already have myself, which is not toooo bad AT ALL….. LOL… . Enjoy the weekend!
/ Jk
Btw: SADE - Love Deluxe, on black vinyl at 33rpm, from the SADE Box-set from 2020.
Things are back in order. The Montana Neo is on it’s way to the client somewhere in Sweden, and it seems I have to live with what I already have myself, which is not toooo bad AT ALL….. LOL…
. Enjoy the weekend!/ Jk
Btw: SADE - Love Deluxe, on black vinyl at 33rpm, from the SADE Box-set from 2020.
I am also interested in the AS Montana with 5000 12" tonearm but was considering the Air Tight Opus cartridge. I have also heard many great things about AMG tables as well. does anyone have a perspective between the two? My set up is Burmester Pre-amp and Reference amp, Nagra Tube Dac and separate power supply, Grimm MU1, Wilson Alexia V with a stereo pair of REL S812 subs. Primarily listen to Jazz.
So this is the famous lions den...Hey everyone,
Things are back in order. The Montana Neo is on it’s way to the client somewhere in Sweden, and it seems I have to live with what I already have myself, which is not toooo bad AT ALL….. LOL…
/ Jk
View attachment 159481
Btw: SADE - Love Deluxe, on black vinyl at 33rpm, from the SADE Box-set from 2020.
View attachment 159482View attachment 159483
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