Interesting. Can you expand on that with some simple examples? Tia
I will be doing a video on this in the near future. This "mistaken measurement" issue is true to greater or lesser degrees with all setup parameters and is why relying upon a test record for all setup parameters makes it such an iterative approach where improvements can certainly be made but optimization is not knowable.
Measuring torque force by test record is the biggest offender since the test is measuring changes to stylus, coil and cantilever orientation as a result of out of control torque forces in the tonearm. You can very easily get lowest distortion figures with the arm under sub-optimal torque forces (from bearing friction, too much anti-skate or not enough anti-skate) by aligning the stylus properly yet still have the damper VERY asymmetrically compressed. We have found no evidence whatsoever that an asymmetrically compressed damper throws off a characteristic waveform behavior, yet the audibility of a relaxed damper is dead obvious to anyone who will take the time to do a proper trial with a WallySkater.
It is a shame that it is not measurable, but then so much of what we can easily empirically experience in our hobby is not known to be measurable - YET. What is the electrical characteristic of increased "resolution"? We all have experienced it for ourselves, but what does it look like on test gear? I'd say the person who may be closest to an answer may be Garth Powell, but how can we know that, say, "resolution" isn't just a second or third order function of whatever is being measured?
So many questions...