SMEV set up problem....help needed

Correct VTA setting is ALWAYS determined by the cutting angle of the record on the platter. Cutting angles used by record companies do vary. There is always a groove-compliant VTA - but NEVER a specific VTA for a given tonearm or cartridge.
Do set by ear. Use an acoustic recording with a solo guitar and voice. Watch for good "body" and a "believable corpus" of the guitar. The voice should have only a small "halo" around its origin.
Look for a VTA which suits the majority of your records - or if you are really particular about this - do make markers and set the VTA for every record.

SME V is a great tonearm (I've had mine for 20 years) but hard to adjust VTA -- and impossible to do it "on the fly" (while the record is playing.) SME can be excused a little bit, because the arm was designed before the era of line contact styli; and with spherical or elliptical styli, matching the stylus rake angle to the groove cutting head angle was not critical.

If you want to do it correctly, study this thread:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1140840022&openmine&Nsgarch&4&5&st0
It's a bit tedious, but not difficult -- be patient, take your time, and use the recommended tools. And rest assured an SME V will hold it's settings forever!

Regardless of the type of tonearm you have, dozens of Agonners have set their VTA (actually SRA) this way with great results. It's really the only way to take into account the variations in stylus mounting, even among cartridges of the same make and model.
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Nsgarch,
please bear in mind with all this beautiful theory, and also Dertonarm, that:
1) At least with the SME V the pivot post can be clamped within a "range" (tilted ~ 1-2 deg. either to one or the other side!) thereby changing azimuth slightly, quite often un-noticed when changing VTA / SRA.
2) If in the case of a record clamp like e.g. VPI (rubber washer), SME (alu washer), yet another ~ 1-2 deg (vinyl level) is the case mostly toward the last band of the record, since the record centre is slightly elevated for the clamp to work as intended.
3) If a record is not completely flat (and which one is?) yet again the azimuth is changed by the vinyl, offering a different "level" surface constantly during each revolution.

I guess it is like with most things, try and get things set-up well --- yet try NOT to get too anal about it, lest you may not listen to music any more but to azimuth, VTA, SRA, VTF, etc. etc.
Greetings,
Axel

Hi Axel, the three items you mention are all factors, but I take question the degree (literally and figuratively!) of their impact.

1.) Less than a half degree on the tonearm azimuth, and easily dialed in with a small spirit level across the headshell assuming the platter is leveled first; and assuming the stylus is true to begin with.
2.) Again, less than half a degree -- even on the worst warped records. More than a half degree and tracking begins to deteriorate, possibly the tonearm will fly free of the record! An eighth inch deflection (or warp) at the outside edge of a record is about one degree and nearly untrackable (depending how steep the bump.)
3.) Again, a negligable deviation.

It's not easy to get the Stylus Rake Angle perfect either; there is no standard, and records (especially these days) come in different thicknesses. And not everyone has a TriPlanar, Graham, or some other arm with on-the-fly micrometer adjustment. HOWEVER, it's very important to at least get in the ballpark. And to do that, you have to know where your arm is set when the stylus on YOUR cartridge is perfectly vertical. Thus my method for determining that condition.

Nsgarch,
let's agree to disagree here.
If the avg. spirit level is toward the one or the other side touching the demarcation line THAT is NOT 1/2 degree!
I work with that stuff so let's say 1 deg. plus to one and 1 deg plus to the other side, i.e. 2 deg from one extreme to the other. I will go with 1 deg. on average, yet the rage is 2 deg.
Now getting anal with microscopes, 1/2 deg. would be *much more* noticeable than that spirit bubble being but only very slightly out to the on or the other side, at least that's my learning.
Greetings,
Axel