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Radial Audio Stealth One – Setup Manual
This manual addresses the setup of the Stealth One on your turntable. Refer to the Owner manual for
day-to-day care and maintenance of the Stealth One.
Congratulations!
You have purchased the finest tone arm in the world. The Stealth One is a precision electro-mechanical
device. It plays vinyl recordings in the same manner in which the recording was originally cut on the
mastering lathe, in a straight line. The Stealth One completely eliminates "skating" forces during
mastering lathe, in a straight line. The Stealth One completely eliminates "skating" forces during
playback, along with the tracking errors present in all pivoted arms. With normal care and minimal
maintenance, the Stealth One will bring you consistent imaging and accurate sound reproduction from
the outermost groove to the innermost groove of every vinyl record. Since the arm is unlike pivoted
arms, you are strongly advised to read these instructions thoroughly before beginning installation.
Unpacking Instructions
Follow these steps:
1. Grasp the Plexiglas channel with one hand, and steady the shipping container with the other
hand. Gently pull both the arm and the attached two foam end panels entirely out of the
shipping container. Set on a smooth, uncluttered workspace.
2. Remove the two foam end blocks, and replace them in the shipping carton.
3. Remove the accessories box from the shipping carton, and place it on the workspace.
3. Remove the accessories box from the shipping carton, and place it on the workspace.
4. The tone arm is mounted upon a 12"x2.5"x3/8" thick black Plexiglas base plate. The arm and
base plate are held together by four Neodymium magnets (visible from the bottom of the base
plate at the four corners, where the front and back elevator towers meet the base plate).
5. The next page provides a complete listing and photos of the accessories provided. The
accessories list shows the quantity of the items and the installation step in which the accessory
is used (steps A to F). Please review the list and find the picture of the accessory below the list.
Some of the accessories are provided to assist in the initial setup of the arm on your turntable.
Select those accessories now (step A), and set the other accessories aside for midstream or
optional installation later.
6. Please contact Radial Audio if any accessories are not present, or need to be replaced in the
future.
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Summary of Contents for Radial Engineering Stealth One
- Page 1 Radial Audio Stealth One – Setup Manual This manual addresses the setup of the Stealth One on your turntable. Refer to the Owner manual for day-to-day care and maintenance of the Stealth One. Congratulations! You have purchased the finest tone arm in the world. The Stealth One is a precision electro-mechanical device.
- Page 2 1. (1)(A) Base Plate shipping block, and 5mm “L”-shaped hex wrench. 2. (1)(A) Stylus overhang setup protractor: Plexiglas center hole with engraved line. 3. (1)(A) 5 volt AC adapter: power supply for the Stealth One. 4. (1)(B) Counterweight, counterweight rod, two blue knurled locking nuts, 5mm “L” wrench.
- Page 3 Having done the setup and alignment on various turntables capable of hosting the Stealth One (but not all), what follows are some techniques that you can evaluate and adapt to your turntable.
- Page 4 Setup Objective 1: Aligning the tone arm base plate 90 degrees to the center spindle Standard method: The first tool needed is in the accessories, a stylus alignment “protractor” with a hole and a straight line running from the center hole to the edge. Use tape or shims to immobilize the platter to the plinth.
- Page 5 So, to utilize the plinth’s rectangular form, position the Stealth One with base plate only (no arm) and “eyeball” it parallel to the turntable plinth’s right-hand edge. Place the scribed line white LP on the “eyeball”...
- Page 6 Place two lengths of strapping tape exactly adjacent to the tone arm base plate. This is a “ballpark” reference marking, which will be improved upon. Use a depth gauge, or a digital calipers (this example) with a depth extension rod. First, measure near the front of the turntable plinth (left below), and then near the rear of the turntable plinth (right below): On the tone arm base plate, locate the four mounting holes (with a slotted sliding depression between each pair).
- Page 7 Sometimes, it is just more direct to replace the manufacturer’s tone arm mounting board with a board that is a perfect interface between the Stealth One and the turntable. See photo on next page. Notice the four Neodymium magnets embedded in the custom mounting board. These magnets are aligned with four corresponding magnets on the bottom of the Stealth One base plate.
- Page 8 Above: custom Linn Sondek LP-12 tone arm mounting board using magnets for alignment and hold down.
- Page 9 Setup Objective 2: Mount cartridge in wand and adjust stylus overhang. Objectives: 1. Counterweight mounting 2. Wand insertion/extraction procedure. 3. Vertical cartridge alignment tool. 4. Mount your “test” or “production” cartridge. 5. Adjust stylus overhang. Counterweight mounting. The counterweight is Delrin, cast with Bismuth alloy, and then milled into a cube. It is shipped with the accessories to prevent damage during transport.
- Page 10 “bottom-out” onto the breech block when the six male gold connectors fully seat inside the six female gold connectors located near the front/center of the breech block. Connections for the 4 signal wires and two LED stylus spotlight wires are now complete. WARNING: The bearings are stainless steel, the pivot points are 10.9 steel, but the inner gimbal is Delrin.
- Page 11 Stylus overhang adjustment. Traditional cartridges have the stylus located wholly under the cartridge body. Some recent cartridges have a cantilever/stylus that is naked, extending beyond the front of the cartridge body. To handle both architectures, the cartridge mounting pad has five pairs of drilled and tapped holes. These holes are precisely drilled on a CNC mill, and are guaranteed to be perfectly parallel to each other and aligned to the imaginary line emanating from the center spindle.
- Page 12 Small iterations: Iteratively tweeking the position of the cartridge mounting pad at the front of the wand. Repeat the process, as needed. There is an accessory that assists in the final stylus overhang “focusing”. Select the blue knurled nut with a (2”, 50mm) black threaded rod attached. This tool slides into the cartridge mounting pad at the front, right hole.
- Page 13 (2.5”,63mm) above the turntable platter surface, LP included, as shown below. Objective: set the vertical height of the Stealth One channel so that the wand presents parallel to the platter surface. The standard Stealth One base is (.354”, .76mm) thick, correct vertical height for the Linn Sondek LP-12 and other turntables where the platter is approximately (1.125”, 28mm) above the...
- Page 14 base plate until the stack of washers provides a rough estimate of just how much more vertical height is needed. Once the total base plate thickness is determined, then decide what “shim” material you want as the final solution. You may also contact Radial Audio to request a special order for a Plexiglas shim milled to match the base plate, or for a single standard base plate for the total base plate height needed.
- Page 15 1. When the wand is setup and viewed as parallel to the LP surface during playback, the architecture of the Stealth One is such that the fully raised stylus is around 1/8” above the LP architecture of the Stealth One is such that the fully raised stylus is around 1/8” above the LP surface at end of lift.
- Page 16 On-record depression over the lead-in dead wax area. 1. Place the wand in the deepest depression (On-record detent). 2. Adjust the front end of the Stealth One by sighting down as best as possible to center the stylus near the middle of an LP’s lead-in dead wax.
- Page 17 a. Wand 1. Off-record wand detent position: the wand can be cocked back toward the user at a 5- degree angle, so that no part of the wand is over the record. There is a detent at the bottom of the bullet well that can catch the blue screw on the underside of the breech block, provided the blue screw is extended enough vertically for the catch to occur.
- Page 18 head), to about 1/2” where the blue screw contacts the bullet well before the breech block body can make contact. To adjust the blue screw, turn the arm over on the channel back and move the wand to the 90-degree angle. Insert the hex wrench and turn counter- clockwise to extend the blue screw, setting more vertical stylus distance above the record surface.
- Page 19 a. Wand weights 1. Delrin Ladder (cartridge mounting pad, signal hat, signal wires, finger lift): 18 gr 2. Delrin (medallions)