The proper alignment and calibration of a vinyl playback system includes the proper positioning of the turntable, platter, tonearm and cartridge.


Wolfsong Audio can correctly set up and align your playback system using modern and time tested tools.  The most sensitive tools are of course your ears and the way they perceive the sound. 

The image above is NOT how to properly align a phono cartridge.  It does serve to illustrate the simplistic approach that many people took as "perfect sound forever" took over the market in the mid 1980s. 

     Proper alignment of the entire analog payback system is critical.  Consider the smallest grooves in the walls of a vinyl album approach 1/1,000,000 of a meter in length.  The proper points of contact and the angles at which they occur is critical to the sound.  Add in the fact that most LPs are cut with lathes that are very different from playback systems and the process of alignment gets more and more complex. 

     VTA, VTF, Azimuth, Overhang, Baerwald, Lofgren, Stylus Force and more alphabet soup acronyms can make the audiophile mind boggle.  Each is a measurement or point of calibration that is critical not only to its own measurement but also to the measurement and calibration of all the other points of contact.  Change the VTF and you change the VTA,  Change Overhang and you change the VTF. 


Analog playback calibration