Cartridge Calibration

Unleash the Potential of Your Analog System!

Playing music through an analog system has many virtues and can be a joyous, satisfying musical experience. If you have invested in a decent turntable, tonearm and cartridge, you simply won’t hear the beauty of what your system can do if it has not been optimised. There are many parameters that influence the way a cartridge tracks through the grooves of a vinyl record (eg. VTA, azimuth, antiskating, tracking force, etc). A cartridge needs to track at the right angle and be perfectly balanced to perform at its best. Sometimes, very small adjustments to your cartridge alignment can make a world of difference. A cartridge that is set up 85% to its potential will sound OK. However, the nuanced, micro-detail that is contained in those grooves will only be picked up and communicated properly if the cartridge is calibrated perfectly.

Meet Chris Camilleri, our Analog Calibration Specialist

Chris is a music fanatic, an audiophile with an amazing system (that’s used almost every evening) and one of the most friendly and generous people you will ever meet. He’s a passionate analog guy with decades of experience and is obsessed with optimisation. This passion for tinkering with equipment led him to meet Mark Dohmann a few years ago. His teachings about turntable calibration have always fascinated Chris and after years of learning, acquiring the right tools and developing extensive experience with calibration techniques, Chris was appointed as Nirvana Sound’s Analog Calibration Specialist. Chris’s knowledge, attention to detail, patience and perfectionist attitude have made him one of Australia’s best cartridge calibration experts and coupled with his generous & witty personality, he has become a favourite among the Nirvana Sound community. If you decide to order our comprehensive cartridge calibration service, Chris will visit your home or premises and deliver the service.

Nirvana Sound Can Help

We are passionate about analog replay and pay particular attention to optimising analog systems. Our resident analog guru Mark Döhmann regularly holds cartridge & tonearm set-up information sessions and Wally Tools training sessions. We also set up turntables and train owners of new high-end turntable how to set-up and maintain their systems. However, setting up a cartridge and tonearm so that it performs optimally requires knowledge, patience and specialist equipment. For those enthusiasts who would prefer an expert to visit and set up their cartridge, we offer two options:

(1) Essential Service
(2) Comprehensive Service

Our Essential Cartridge Calibration Service

Nirvana Sound offers our clients an Essential Cartridge Calibration Service. This is a cost-effective service which covers the basics and ensures that your cartridge is set up according to the manufacturer’s specifications and tracking well.

This service is performed by our resident analog specialist Chris Camilleri and takes no longer than 2 hours to complete. Please contact Nirvana Sound for further details.

Our Comprehensive Cartridge Calibration Service

Nirvana Sound offers our clients a Comprehensive Cartridge Calibration Service. This is the most thorough, professional set-up service available and is intended to provide you with a fully optimised set-up of your analog system. Once this service has been completed, your system should be sounding its very best. This service is performed by our resident analog specialist Chris Camilleri and takes 4-5 hours to complete. Please contact Nirvana Sound for further details.

The Comprehensive Cartridge Calibration Service involves the following aspects:

1. You will be contacted prior to your appointment that we can have information relating to:
   1. Your setup. This includes high-level information about the components in your system. In particular, we will need information about your phono stage, turntable, tonearm and the cartridge which you would like to be fitted.
   2. Any specific issues you may have with what you’re hearing now.
   3. Accessibility to the rear side of the equipment, and workspace available (eg. table top) to perform calibration and measurement works.
2. Think of a record or two that you would like to listen to before calibration work begins. We will listen to this together if possible.  The same record(s) will be played after calibration work is complete to test and ensure everything is operating well.
3. We will be making measurements of your current cartridge height and vertical tracking force.
4. The cartridge will be removed and stylus measurements will be made under a microscope.
5. The cartridge will be re-fitted to test for any unwanted anti-skate forces.
6. Approximate cartridge overhang and offset angles will be set.
7. The dynamic stylus rake angle will be measured and adjusted if possible.
8. The cartridge overhang and offset angles will be fine-tuned.
9. Vertical tracking force will be set.
10. Anti-skate will be set.
11. Azimuth will be adjusted (if possible).
12. The phono stage or step-up transformer loading will be adjusted (if applicable).
13. Check and calibrate turntable speed.
14. Re-fitment and test listening will be performed.
15. You will be contacted a number of days after the calibration work is complete to ensure everything is still sounding great.
16. A high-level report of our findings and measurements during the calibration process will be emailed to you.

Your ears will thank you!