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Vinyl heresy-overhang induced distortion is not that important

I have learned and am of the opinion that the quality of the drive unit, the quality of the tonearm, the quality of the cartridge and phono stage and compatibility/setting of all these things (other than setting overhang) and the setting of proper VTF, VTA, SRA, and azimuth are far more important than worrying about how much arc-induced and overhang- induced (the two are related) distortion one has. I learned this the hard way. I will not go into details but please trust me-I am talking about my new ~15K of turntable components for the deck itself and excluding cartridge and phono stage. I have experimented with simply slamming a cartridge all the way forward in the headshell, placing the cartridge mid-way along the headshell slots, and slammed all the way back, each time re-setting VTF, VTA, SRA, and azimuth. I would defy anyone to pick out the differences. I have 30K of tube separates, a Manley Steelhead, and DeVore O/93's. I submit that any differences in distortion due to sub-optimum arcs and deviations from the two null points and where they are located (those peaks in distortion) are masked several times over by distortion imposed by my tubed gear and my loudspeakers. To believe that your electronics and loudspeakers have less distortion than arc-induced distortion is unrealistic. I have heard startling dynamics, soundstaging, and detail with all three set-ups. It is outright fun to listen to and far preferable to my very good digital rig with all three set-ups. 
My point is that getting perfect alignment is often, not always, like putting lipstick on a pig, I think back on my days on owning a VPI Classic and then a VPI Prime and my having Yip of Mint Protractors fashion custom-made protractors for each of these decks and my many hours of sitting all bent over with eye to jewelers loop staring down horizontal twist among parallax channels and getting overhang on the exact spots of two grids and yet never hearing anything close to the level of sound I get now. Same cartridges, same phono stage, only my turntable/arm combination has changed. I kept thinking the answer had to be in perfect alignment when it was clearly everything else but.
Thoughts? I am sure I will get all kinds of flack. But for those that do tell me I am nuts, try my experiment sometime with a top-tier deck/arm combination and report back. 
128x128fsonicsmith
melm
1,082 posts
 
I agree to the extent that I think (what some call) horizontal tracking alignment or angle (HTA) is not as important as some have made it seem.  In the first place, with 2 points of tangency or one (as HW of VPI has often argued for) almost all the time there is no tangency.  And as everyone knows there is no absolute agreement on how to set up HTA.  I am often very amused therefore when the purchaser of a multi-hundred dollar (or pound) protractor device announces that the improvement blew him away.

IMO, with HTA somewhere within a reasonable range, other things are at least, perhaps more, important: azimuth and (depending upon the stylus shape) SRA.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 
VTA is built in on the tonearm and table; beyond that, they don't think it's important; neither do I.

While "all" adjustments are important to a degree, they also have a range, meaning that you could take the adjustment far beyond it's range, and it could cause gross distortion.
solypsa's avatar
solypsa
462 posts
 
I setup tables as a service and as a hobby. I still take time setting basic geometry...but my 'wow' moments in setup always come from chasing the right sra/vta.

It takes an open mind to talk about distortion not mattering in the way we would assume. Sort of like people assuming a simpler signal path is always better....
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
One should never assume but all things being equal (which is a qualifier not an assumption) the simpler signal path is always better. How could it possibly be otherwise?

fsonicsmith's avatar
fsonicsmith OP
959 posts
 
It takes an open mind to talk about distortion not mattering in the way we would assume. Sort of like people assuming a simpler signal path is always better....

One should never assume but all things being equal (which is a qualifier not an assumption) the simpler signal path is always better. How could it possibly be otherwise?

The above is a perfect analogy. The first statement points out the oft-held assumption and the second confirms that people make this assumption. 
Many of us think the way millercarbon does. It makes perfect sense on paper. I have been "disabused" of this notion. My ARC Ref 6 preamp has circuit boards and not PtP wiring and it has a BAT-like maze of capacitors and signal paths from input to output. It sounds amazing. And yes, it has a sound. A preamp on paper should not have a sound, right? (Sam Tellig evil laugh here). Well, not so fast. Those who love their passive or buffered attenuators say yes to that, those of us who have active preamps of the likes of my ARC say otherwise. The debate goes on. This whole concept of all distortion being bad is just another form of the same argument. I think audio enlightenment lies in embracing the reality that there is always distortion. 
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