How to properly set VTF??

Dan_ed, 'All this being said, I think that we do all agree that getting it really close with the gauge and then adjusting by ear is the way to go.' Yes.
We are disagreeing on how close one needs to get before adjusting by ear.
BTW, have you ever you checked the repeatability of your gauge? Try measuring the VTF every day for the next twenty days without touching or adjusting any of the parameters on the arm. You might be surprised by the different readings you get every day.
With respect,
Bob P.

Heck, Bob. The $35 digital guage I have now will hardly give me the same results if I measure VTF one right after the other only seconds apart. :) I'm not sure if that sucker is any better than my Shure balance.

Oh, yes. I would expect that the VTF could change from day to day. I was arguing only that it is possible on some arms to adjust to that .01 fairly repetatively.

I certainly wouldn't mind being wrong on this. I'm planning on purchasing a Winds soon and this could save me $200.

BTW, does anyone have any feedback on that digital guage being offered under the cartridges for sale? SirSpeedy mentioned it a few days ago but I've not been able to find out much about it. If it is that good it could save me another $500.

dan_ed, And I am sure that the Winds repeatability will not be much better than +/- 0.02g, ie. that it will vary easily every day by that amount. just not worth the money.
Stick with your Shure gauge and your ears.
Salut, Bob P.

Sorry Bob,tried that,and don't agree(respectfully).It's clearly easy to hear the 1/100 gm differences in the set-ups that I'm privy to.The other pre changes you mention,don't impact the fact that the arm/cartridge "ZONE" is extremely important,based on what I've learned.Yet I'm NOT preaching anything to be set in stone.This is simply my own,and friends',observations.

As to the guage situation,here's my take--I've owned the Shure(totally unacceptable).The digital Cartridge Man guage was a pain to use properly,in that it needed a 24 hr charge,and was supposedly accurate for about 1/2 hr.Unacceptable for checking something out,on a whim,which I do often as I get new discs.Sometimes a new LP opens up a new door to checking certain parameters,at least to me,and I hated having to re-charge just to check this.My own set-up consists of a sort of "averaging" to a wide variety of LP's,in my collection.Wish I owned the LEGENDARY Air Tangent, remote/digital read out of vta,arm.I do think that this is the arm in GOD's system!

I bought the quite nice Digital One stylus force guage,from "Audio Parts",a year ago.Yet my pal got the same one,and it is .13 off from Sid's Winds guage(which I know to be accurate.He's had it checked).I never compared my Digi One to my friend's,but since his zero'd out to the supplied weight,as does mine,I see no reason mine is any different.

Also,since we've NEVER gotten such superb performance from my friend Ed's system(though he puts the emphasis on a recent shift from IC-70 to Venustas phono link),and the Winds was used EXTENSIVELY during the arm cable comparisons,and I was present,and active in the comparison(I was FANATICAL about the differences between 1.83/1.84/1.85/1.86/1.87)settings,all audible,as well as hyper fine tuning vta,and fluid during a 12 hr period,here.So my take,as well as Sid, was the fine increments of the "accurate to a fairthywell" Winds seemed to offer greater credibility than the actual cable differences.Hence,though I originally was interested in possibly changing to the Venustas,I'm now reasonably convinced that the Winds is the better investment,for me.

BTW-Dan--You can get about 100 bucks off on this guage,if you time it right.Like spring/summer!In my case I'm going in with a few other lunatics(like me),so I hope to get a fair market price.

Though any really good input on the NEW guage being marketed on the for sale area of Audiogon,would have the potential of putting the "Kibash" on a Winds purchase.It looks that good!I'll bet it's too good to be true,though!!Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

One final thought.Any feedback is always welcome!Though it is very good to ultimately set by ear,and I do this alot during long listening sessions,isn't it a good idea to finalize our efforts by checking the downforce,after all is tuned?This way (even with some inevitable drift)we can zero in on ultimate parameters quickly.To me,if there is always going to be some slight drift,then it's a matter of easily resetting with a good guage.If this is NOT plausible,then I think I may have to give my CD player more consideration,as I'm not really into tweaking as much as many of you may think.Just food for thought!