Any of you experiment with optimal VTA for Benz Micro Cartridges

Thanks for the link folkfreak.

I'm trying not to be sucked into too much tweakery as far as turntables go, though of course I want to have good performance.  I intend to have someone from a local high end store set up the turntable to ensure I'm off on the right foot.  (It was purportedly already set up by the dealer of the person I bought it from, though I have no idea if anything might have drifted due to the turntable being transported in my car).

But...if there are in fact tools that make some DIY adjustments easy enough I may grab one, such as the project align-it tool.

Irregardless of whether you have a dealer set up your table for you you really need to know how to align a cartridge yourself. Cartridges age and suspensions sag so VTF and VTA will need to be adjusted as the cartridge ages. In addition if you ever change the cart you will need to align the new one and so on

A minimal set of tools I would recommend anyone owning a table of your budget and potential should have would include

• An alignment tool like the ProJect
• A VTF gauge -- my preference is the Rega (https://www.musicdirect.com/analog-accessories/Rega-Atlas-Stylus-Force-Gauge) -- there are reasons to be leery of the cheaper ones, I have never found them to read reliably but others disagree ...
• Some form of VTA template (also useful for azimuth) such as this https://www.musicdirect.com/analog-accessories/millennium-acrylic-vta-block or http://www.analogueseduction.net/category-651/acoustical-systems-smartstylus-cartridge-set-up-tool.h...
• A stylus cleaner like this https://www.musicdirect.com/analog-accessories/zerodust-stylus-cleaner

Finally you must purchase some form of record cleaning system -- my strong recommendation is an ultrasonic

While this may seem like "tweakery" it is actually the minimum necessary for you to realize what your LP system is capable of

As you get more into it then you can explore turntable isolation systems, mono specific cartridges and the like but for the time being the stuff I've outlined above will get you going

Great info folkfreak.  Thanks for helping out a turntable newbie.
I've bookmarked this thread.

@prof  That looks like a very nice phono stage to go with a killer turntable and cart!  The other guys nailed it on what you should look for/do.  Congrats either way!

Thanks for the optimistic comments, audiom3.  Makes me excited to finally listen to my turntable...sometime soon once I've re-done my rack to accommodate it.

For years, playing vinyl now and then, I've used an older micro seiki dd-40 turntable given to me by my father-in-law.  It sounded great.  But the turntable and cartridge were both around 37 years old or so, and since I was finding myself more heavily into vinyl I figured time to upgrade to a modern table.  It was only when I researched selling my Micro Seiki that I discovered it was such a venerated old table.  But I had already committed to buying my new one.  Plus I wanted to upgrade from my cheap, very old Rotel phono stage a pal had given me decades ago.

I am loving buying lots of vinyl again (aside from my bank account)  but at the same time I didn't want to make the turntable part of my system in to a new hobby itself.  I didn't want to buy low, and then wonder what I could get if I spent more, and go through the upgrading turntable, cartridges, etc.  I was willing to throw the top amount of money I'd be willing to spend on a turntable at the issue the first time and be done with it.

I was first focused on the VPI Prime Signature Rosewood turntable.  I'm an absolute sucker for audio jewlery aesthetics and that table is a beauty.

But then a friend pointed me to the Transrotor Fat Bob being sold locally - quite a rare item to come for sale, especially nearby, no shipping involved.   It was an as-new item, barely used, came with 12" Transrotor arm, additional external motor control (usually extra) AND the over $3,000 Micro Benz cartridge thrown in.  That's a value of around $15,000 CDN and I could get all that for even less than I'd pay for the VPI new, and the VPI wouldn't even come with a cartridge!  That was a deal I couldn't pass up.  So, hear I am, excited to hear the new beastie in my home.  I'm sure I'll enjoy the sound and knowing I got as much (more actually) turntable as I'd ever want to throw money at, I'll not be second guessing and wanting to upgrade.  I'm done.

(Unless for some reason the sound sucks...)