Rega RP6 VTA issue

Analog has always been more ritual intensive. Setting the VTA should be a one time thing once the cartridge is installed and the spacers are a good solution because it addresses Rega's over-riding concern about rigidity.

On the other hand, if you happen to like how a particular Rega cartridge sounds, VTA is not an issue at all.

You're not alone. Rega makes very high value/performance components, but they are not, for the most part, aimed at the tweaky, perfectionist audiophile. Setting the VTA with spacers does work, but it's not very user friendly. I think the lack of azimuth adjustment is a bigger flaw. Despite what I think, the Rega tonearm is the most popular audiophile tonearm since its introduction in the early 1980s.

Good responses, with Onhwy61's being especially fair and balanced.

Zavato's assertion that, "Setting the VTA should be a one time thing once the cartridge is installed..." would have been better stated as a matter of individual sensibilities and preference. Some of us hear out-of-adjustment VTA (SRA, actually) on a per LP basis and prefer to adjust accordingly. For such listeners, a fixed-height tonearm would be a poor choice, no matter how rigid it is. Rigidly wrong is still wrong. :-)

Roy Gandy espoused several other "keep it simple" views, such as the idea that LPs need not be cleaned to play their best. That may work for some but certainly not for all. One senses that he pooh-poohed audiophile fussiness in order to encourage people to just relax and enjoy the music (and not worry about adjustments that he couldn't be bothered to offer). Keeping the listener blithely happy might stop him looking around at competitor's gear and wondering, is there more?

Rega's are decently made, set-and-forget rigs built to a price point. For the target listener they're a good choice. But above a certain price point one expects more. For some listeners, other rigs will provide more of what pleases their own ears.

I find the Regas to be well designed tables for the person who likes to not fuss with the most intricate setting to get the last percent of music to be refined. I prefer a set it and forget it solution. I would not want to spend time setting VTA and azimuth for each different wt LP I put on.

Part of the issue was exacerbated when my local Rega dealer said I could keep my current Sumiko cart and he'd adjust the table so the lid wouldn't bump the cart when closed. Really? Somehow my desire for an RP6 is dimming quickly as in that price range it seems that EVERY table allows for VTA, azimuth tweeking, etc., and since my mint but elderly Linn Basik/Akito still lives (I had planned to replace it while it's still working well), and sounds fabulous, I can wait. Pro-ject RPM 10.1 used someplace...hmmm