Linn Forums

Hello all,
I'm new here, hope someone can help me. My system is LP12, Cirkus, Ekos 1, Lingo 1, Akiva (brand new), NAC 202, NAP 200, Hi-Cap, Stageline, Dynaudio Contour S 1.4's (brand new). Equipment is siting on a Naim Fraim. The Ekos dates from 1992, bearings have been tested and are in perfect condition.
The Akiva replaced a Klyde about a month ago and since it was fitted I had some minor tracking problems at the end of record sides. I bought a Hi-Fi News test record in an effort to check the bias settings and found that while the Akiva will track the first bias test (+12dB) cleanly, it will only track the second (+14dB) with a loud buzz coming from the right hand speaker (which is present on the right hand channel regardless of whether the bias on the Ekos is set to 3 or to 0, which seems weird to me). It will not track the third (+16dB) or fourth (+18dB) bands at all.
Tracking is set to 1.81g (set on a digital scale and sounds about right to my ear) and bias is set at approximately 1.5g which is the cleanest sounding setting when playing music. Cartridge looks perfectly aligned on a protractor.
I guess I should just trash the test record and play some music (which sounds great with the exception of the occasional end of side mistracking). But does anyone have any words of wisdom as to why such an expensive and perfectly compatible arm and cartridge combo would track the test record so badly?
Sorry for such a long first post and thanks in advance for any thoughts.

I had the same problem too, it is the azimuth issue.

Have never tried Akiva myself but have heard others tell that they can be a bad-tracker when brand new and need some hours to "loosen up".

Let it play for 40-50 hours and hopefully it will track OK.

BTW, has your TT been set up with use of the Kinky-tool to get the distance from arm-collar to spindle correct?

Thanks for your answers.
No, to my knowledge a Kinky wasn't used, but if that distance were out, wouldn't that mean that the stylus would struggle to hit the correct marks on the alignment protractor (given that it's put over the spindle)?
Also, on the azimuth the Akiva passed the test for azimuth on the same Hi-Fi News test record where it failed the bias tests, so it would at least appear that the azimuth is correct (it certainly looks 100% vertical).
I'd also read somewhere that Linn arms and cartridges regularly and consistantly fail the HFNRR test records, has anyone heard that?

Thanks again for your help.

Do you use Linn's protractor? If it's correct when the cartridge is fasten with the three screws it should be OK.

How many hours have you used the cartridge? Does it track any better than brand new? If you don't get it to track correct I would suspect there is something serious wrong with the Akiva....

I reckon there's no more than about 20hrs on it (at the most). I used the protractor that came with the test record for 9" arms and it was spot on, would a Linn protractor be different?
I would say that the tracking has somewhat improved when listening to music (as has the overall sound) but what worried me was it failing the test record and the fact that I couldn't equalize the buzz from just the right channel to both channels on the second test by adjusting the bias even to its maximum extremes of 0 or +3

Lots of MC cartridges fail tracking test records - all this proves is how irrelevant test records actualy are.

Most protractors are not universal. Some are, like Dr. Feichert, but most of them are not. I don't know the protractor that come with the test record but it may be wrong for the Ekos. I recommend you to buy Linn's protractor and do the allignment with that one. To get it perfect you should use the Kinky to get the correct distance from the spindle to the center of the arm's collar, i.e. 211mm.

Thanks..I'll do that (or buy a Keel...gulp!)

Good idea, then you can forget the Kinky-stuff..........