Tonearm parallelism mystery

6 replies
NA
Nick Allen
Bronze
10 posts
Posted February 20, 2019 at 22:30 GMT
#2118900

Hi folks. New member and new B&O owner here. Just bought a Beocenter 5000 and some Beovox speakers (like my Dad had when I was a kid!) which needed quite a lot of TLC, and I'm just setting up the turntable.

I have the service manual, and up till now it’s been relatively straightforward. I’ve got it to drop the arm at the right place, and set the tracking weight correctly etc.

However it still sounds a bit distorted. The arm rotation (parallelism) looks off to me, and the adjustment screw that they talk about in the manual doesn’t exist (see images). Can anyone shed any light on how to adjust this?

I have searched the forum, but couldn’t find any mention of it - apologies if it has been covered or is a stupid question!

Thanks in advance for any help,

Nick

 

from the manual...

 

my tonearm....

 

DI
Dillen
BronzeModeratorFounder
12777 posts
Posted February 22, 2019 at 09:21 GMT
#2118901

The screw is right there in plain view in your photo.
The hexagonal thing that the manual points to.

Martin

trackbeo
trackbeo
Bronze
899 posts
Posted February 22, 2019 at 15:13 GMT
#2118902

As a newbie I was confused too,and even Martin's answer was unhelpful -- not intentionally, for how does one state the obvious -- but I looked at your pictures for a good 3 minutes and still couldn't figure what he meant...  Don't look for some tiny set-screw with a hex-head inset --  rather, a portion of the tube *itself* is the screw (or has a tailpiece with threads).  Apparently you actually wrench on the tube, where it changes from cylindrical to hexagonal prism (and back again). 

NA
Nick Allen
Bronze
10 posts
Posted February 24, 2019 at 16:59 GMT
#2118903

Ohhh - Not a screw in the traditional sense of the word then! Thanks. It had occurred to me that I could just pop on a spanner and twist, but it seemed too brutal for such a delicate bit of kit.

Will give it a go...

 

NA
Nick Allen
Bronze
10 posts
Posted February 24, 2019 at 22:06 GMT
#2118904

Søren Mexico wrote:
You will have to grip the arm tight with 2 fingers, loosen the screw (it is a screw with hexagonal head) then adjust the parallelism, grab the arm again and tighten the screw, do not over tighten.

Thank you very much for the advice, will attempt it tomorrow!

NA
Nick Allen
Bronze
10 posts
Posted March 16, 2019 at 18:41 GMT
#2118905

Thanks again for your advice, I managed to correct the parallelism. However records still sound a little distorted - is there a way of setting the anti-skate mechanism, if I don't have the B&O test record (or an oscilloscope)?

Also, I have looked at many stylus pictures on the net trying to work out if mine is worn or not, but just can't tell. Any experts out there who can tell from these pics?

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