Stylus Rake Angle Webinar

Summer 2024 update: The understanding of the significance of SRA and VTA as expressed in this webinar no longer reflect our best understanding on the issues. See the following videos for more: https://youtu.be/dbqa2n4khb4?list=TLGG7al2JWpR8pgwNDAzMjAyNQ AND https://youtu.be/z0bZp9Nky2E?list=TLGG_oLFDLUTBIIwNDAzMjAyNQ. Also read this BLOG ARTICLE

January 2022 update: the WallyScope is now available for shipping. The WallyScope makes the process discussed in this webinar far easier and more accurate than any USB microscope approach can provide.

On March 20th, 2021, audio industry reviewers Michael Fremer (Stereophile & Analog Planet) and Greg Weaver (Positive Feedback, Enjoy The Music, Soundstage and Stereo Review) and turntable designer Mark Döhmann of Döhmann Audio joined WAM Engineering to put on an instructional webinar on how to accurately measure your cartridge's Stylus Rake Angle (SRA) for optimal playback results.

In this webinar we discussed:

The ideal SRA we should set our stylus to
What type of stylus benefits the most from ideal SRA
WHY we need to align for an ideal SRA even though the recording industry does not have a single cutting angle for its lathe cutter heads
How to improve measurement accuracy with a basic USB microscope - even on asymmetric styli
How to decrease time needed fussing with the USB microscope
How to keep diagnostic equipment costs down, and...
HOW TO MEASURE DYNAMIC SRA!

The video, slide presentation and written instructions are all available below.

2 Comments

Jeff Herbert

Mar 27, 2021

Good information but it would be good if we could actually see you guys. Your images are microscopic so we can't see your visual explanations. I enjoyed the content tho.

WallyTools | WAM Engineering

Replying to

I agree that it is tough to see the insets. Viewers in the Zoom meeting can enlarge those insets as they like but obviously you cannot on the recording. It would have slowed things down for me too much to start and stop sharing screen repeatedly as presenter. I will look at other ways to deal with this in the future knowing that those watching the recording will not have the flexibility of enlargement of the inset screens. Thanks for the feedback!