of course.

Basically when they say paralell to the platter, that mean the WHOLE of the tonearm is startght and inline... so get the height sorted out...which you know how to do? get that sorted out until your tonearm is completly horizontal while the stylus is on a record. This will and should has some effects on your stylus's life. This whole operation reduces the angle which the needle is on, onto a vertical kind of way. But yea, i haven't straightened mine out, i think i may have to do some adjustments this arvo... Cya

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yes u are balancing the tonearm w/ the cartridge mounted...if you dont have a height adjustment on your table then dont worry about setting the height. the way i do it is, make sure the dial of the counterweight is facing you (more on that in a sec), with one hand hold the tonearm so that it is parallel w/ the platter. with the other hand, spin the counterweight towards you until the tonearm can float like your holding it (only w/o you holding it), directly parallel to the platter. once it can do that, very cafefully, spin the stylus pressure dial on the counterweight until the "0" is @ the center line on back of the tonearm. you need to make sure that while you do this, u do not move the counterweight ... at all. once you get the dial hooked up w/ the tonearm, your tonearm is fully balanced. from there, you need to give the stylus pressure (turning the counterweight towards you; be careful not to bump the dial).

i use between 2.5-3.5 grams of pressure when i spin. make sure that you set the anti skate to the same number youve dialed the tonearm to. (ex: 3 grams of pressure = "3" on the anti skate)

enjoy!!

Thanks for the help people. I can get it to balance, and get the ring to "0".. but when i turn the whole weight towards 3 (clockwise), my whole tonearm lifts up in the air.. (btw, my tables are technics SL1200's, brand new).. I have never had to do this, because when i bought them, thery had them set up for me w/ shure m44's . I now when out and bought Ortofon's Dj E's .. Any ideas on what could be wrong?

Jay