Thanks again. It's sounding good--and a real joy to hear records that I haven't played in more than a decade. I'll leave things be, I guess. I looked at the owner's manual for the turntable and it doesn't mention anything about VTA: I don't see any problem on that front, so I'll let the HK engineering do its stuff. (I don't have experience with recent high-end turntables, but this one seems quite respectabally effective to me.) Thanks for clearing up the bit about the cartridge weight, and for your advice about the Ortofon upgrade path.
One more question, as long as we're at it. The original HK mat is a dense rubber--it almost seems brittle, I don't know whether that is age-related or not, as I purchased this unit used. Would a replacement turntable mat be a sonically valuable upgrade, or is that pretty much "snake oil"?
One more question, as long as we're at it. The original HK mat is a dense rubber--it almost seems brittle, I don't know whether that is age-related or not, as I purchased this unit used. Would a replacement turntable mat be a sonically valuable upgrade, or is that pretty much "snake oil"?