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Recommendations for setting VTA

All of the other cartridge alignments are possible for me to set with some level of confidence, but then there is VTA. Yes, I am confident when making parallel, the tonearm with the platter, but then there is the sighting of the stylus position in respect to the groove. Is there a microscope made especially for this task? FWIW, I own a Schiit SOL, and yes, it has adjustable VTA on the fly, but trust me, it is the coarsest adjustment that you can imagine, and in my case, broken to start with! TT came that way when I bought it second hand. 

4krowme
jasonbourne52's avatar
jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 

+1 lewm! That's what I do - headshell parallel to the record surface. The FR29 arm lacks VTA adjustment so I leave it alone.

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elliottbnewcombjr
5,950 posts
 

Really you want to avoid ’wrong’ i.e. you don’t need perfect, but you can refine by listening IF you have the ears for it.

I bought one of these transparent adjustable protractors,

you can see the cantilever i.e. shure V15 = 15% VTA. Find your cartridge’s recommended VTA.

Then, SRA, look it up,

https://www.google.com/search?q=stylus+rake+angle&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS975US975&oq=stylus+rake+angle&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512j0i22i30l2j69i65.6191j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I settled on 91% (while ’down’ on lp surface (no need to play, just with the tracking force applied).

you need to pretend you can see the stylus tip while viewing thru it, or holding it behind. this helps find 90 or a speck more or less than 90, also for front view setting azimuth

You can see enough to know no damage will occur, essentially correct, play on.

 

lewm
13,768 posts
 

Elliot, I personally have always used the "start with headshell level" technique. I have never ever, nor will I ever, take the trouble to directly measure SRA.  Not the least of the reasons for my choice is the fact that I am not trained to measure SRA correctly.  There is no reason to burden a newbie with the idea he has to measure SRA or needs special equipment to do so, IMO.

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 

VTA can only be set by ear, sort of the way lewm describes. Only it doesn't need to take hours. Simply listen a while, a song or two, just enough to get a handle on the overall balance of the sound. Then carefully adjust very slightly up or down. Up if you think the sound could use a bit more air, down if you think a bit too bright and could use more body. Then whichever way you go the sound will either get better or worse. If worse then go the other way. If better then keep going that way until, guess what? It gets worse. Then stop and backtrack a bit.

The trick is very small adjustments. 1mm is not small. 1mm is monster. 0.1mm is big. Small is micro. Small is you will never even see it, not even with a microscope. Small is like a tiny fraction of a turn on most VTA adjusters. Think 1/20 to 1/50 of a turn. Real small. By eyeball small. By ear, different story. That's why, don't look, listen.

 

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