Hi Folkfreak - thank you for the reply and for sharing your experiences. If I may comment on a couple of your points.
I am making an assumption here not having used this tonearm personally; that assumption being the issue of VTF drifting in this case, is not with the tonearm part itself, but physics. Please allow me to use a crude analogy to illustrate my point. Anyone can try this. Gather a blank piece of paper, flat shim whatever material - say one inch think, and a long marker.
Place the piece of paper on a table, draw a straight line with the marker using the shim to make the line straight.
Now hold the marker with your thumb, middle and index fingers, and lay your hand sideways, on the line.
Hold the marker level like a tonearm armtube, and lower the tip until a dot is made on the paper.
Now put the shim on the line and your hand on top of the one inch shim. This represents a higher VTA position.
Lower marker again. This time the dot will be closer to the line (over hang has changed) because of the height change, if you could weigh the marker dots the first one - with the lower height (VTA) would be heavier. Again a crude example, the experiment came to me many years ago when I observed this phenomena.
To observe this phenomena using an actual tonearm; set your tonearm on its lowest VTA adjustment point. Measure the overhang and VTF. Now raise to the highest VTA position and measure overhang and VTF again. Overhang and VTF will have changed and if one wants to be the double A - Accurate and Anal, both need to be reset as well as Azimuth depending on the specific tonearm, each time VTA needs to be changed in ones listening room. From a listening aspect, my experiences have been some stylus types are affected by VTA more than others; but that's a cartridge/stylus thread discussion.
Folkfreak - I would look forward to the results of you trying this with your tonearm.
@OP Crazy Bill - if you are using the B60 Base accessory with your FR66, I would be interested in you trying this as well. Only takes 2 minutes.
**********************************
A little about my approach.
I play all kinds of records meaning old records, new ones, all genres. They were pressed all over the place and I am all over the place with my selections as well. I can get into routines, but then one day I pull a record on a whim, like it, and that gets me on another routine/ genre. Love discovering new music. So, I have found some records are, to use one common word, brighter, than others. Why ? Many years ago I found the findings in the Eminent Technology ET2 tonearm owners manual very interesting.
Just a summary - pulled from there, not word for word. These are basic guidelines.
Vertical Tracking Angle . See this link pic. quick grab from the internet.
http://eu.audio-technica.com/en/products/cartridges/images/vertical.jpg
So, for someone like myself that plays all kinds of different records from different pressing plants. This tells me the vertical angle cut in the record itself could vary. The record is the Alpha here - no question to me. Does anybody doubt this ? I do realize this AudioGon site is mostly about the gear. And I also recognize that if an Audiophile is listening to the same type/pressed records - the value or importance of VTA may become less important. But I still feel its important to understand what is going on when we do hear differences; especially when the only changed variable in a given listening session, are the records themselves.
My reference tonearm has been designed to optimize the vertical tracking angle. And if you think back to the marker dot example above. This tonearm's VTA "block" contains a worm gear /cylinder that actually moves the armtube in and out, as you raise or lower the VTA, for different record angle cuts and thicknesses. Its frequency of use is all based on what I hear in my room. I have found how much it is used, depends on the cartridge/stylus type, and my tolerance level, the latter part varies day to day. The VTA mechanism on this tonearm is patented and keeps the VTF, overhang, azimuth from changing.
Thanks for letting me ramble.
Critical to this is the ability to go backwards and forwards on tonearm height to dial in SRA very finely.
My one knock on the Kairos however would be that I think the small VTF weight may wander (i.e. drift on the thread) in use -- keep rechecking VTF regularly and you are good however.
I am making an assumption here not having used this tonearm personally; that assumption being the issue of VTF drifting in this case, is not with the tonearm part itself, but physics. Please allow me to use a crude analogy to illustrate my point. Anyone can try this. Gather a blank piece of paper, flat shim whatever material - say one inch think, and a long marker.
Place the piece of paper on a table, draw a straight line with the marker using the shim to make the line straight.
Now hold the marker with your thumb, middle and index fingers, and lay your hand sideways, on the line.
Hold the marker level like a tonearm armtube, and lower the tip until a dot is made on the paper.
Now put the shim on the line and your hand on top of the one inch shim. This represents a higher VTA position.
Lower marker again. This time the dot will be closer to the line (over hang has changed) because of the height change, if you could weigh the marker dots the first one - with the lower height (VTA) would be heavier. Again a crude example, the experiment came to me many years ago when I observed this phenomena.
To observe this phenomena using an actual tonearm; set your tonearm on its lowest VTA adjustment point. Measure the overhang and VTF. Now raise to the highest VTA position and measure overhang and VTF again. Overhang and VTF will have changed and if one wants to be the double A - Accurate and Anal, both need to be reset as well as Azimuth depending on the specific tonearm, each time VTA needs to be changed in ones listening room. From a listening aspect, my experiences have been some stylus types are affected by VTA more than others; but that's a cartridge/stylus thread discussion.
Folkfreak - I would look forward to the results of you trying this with your tonearm.
@OP Crazy Bill - if you are using the B60 Base accessory with your FR66, I would be interested in you trying this as well. Only takes 2 minutes.
**********************************
A little about my approach.
I play all kinds of records meaning old records, new ones, all genres. They were pressed all over the place and I am all over the place with my selections as well. I can get into routines, but then one day I pull a record on a whim, like it, and that gets me on another routine/ genre. Love discovering new music. So, I have found some records are, to use one common word, brighter, than others. Why ? Many years ago I found the findings in the Eminent Technology ET2 tonearm owners manual very interesting.
Just a summary - pulled from there, not word for word. These are basic guidelines.
- Many records are cut with a 16 - 20 degree vertical angle.
- Average cartridge vertical angles are slighter higher than 22 degrees. This leads to a mismatch.
- European cutting standards closely match vertical angles of phono cartridges.
- If a cartridge vertical angle is higher than 22 degree its performance may be improved by tilting it back 2-3 degrees.
- If the measured vertical tracking angle of a cartridge is 18-20 degrees it will probably perform best with its top parallel to the record.
- Some cartridges are sensitive to VTA, others are not.
Vertical Tracking Angle . See this link pic. quick grab from the internet.
http://eu.audio-technica.com/en/products/cartridges/images/vertical.jpg
So, for someone like myself that plays all kinds of different records from different pressing plants. This tells me the vertical angle cut in the record itself could vary. The record is the Alpha here - no question to me. Does anybody doubt this ? I do realize this AudioGon site is mostly about the gear. And I also recognize that if an Audiophile is listening to the same type/pressed records - the value or importance of VTA may become less important. But I still feel its important to understand what is going on when we do hear differences; especially when the only changed variable in a given listening session, are the records themselves.
My reference tonearm has been designed to optimize the vertical tracking angle. And if you think back to the marker dot example above. This tonearm's VTA "block" contains a worm gear /cylinder that actually moves the armtube in and out, as you raise or lower the VTA, for different record angle cuts and thicknesses. Its frequency of use is all based on what I hear in my room. I have found how much it is used, depends on the cartridge/stylus type, and my tolerance level, the latter part varies day to day. The VTA mechanism on this tonearm is patented and keeps the VTF, overhang, azimuth from changing.
Thanks for letting me ramble.