New turntable SRA questions

I took some photos the best I could. To my eyes, the tonearm is slightly aimed down. I will try to get it better in the future but this is how it looks now. 

Just place a "thick" LP under the new mat (really thick would be around 2mm/really thin would be around 1mm) and see if it sounds better after readjusting the VTF.

The VTA of the stylus comes first, IMO.

I've owned many, many, many decks with SME arms, without the arm being totally parallel to the disc/platter, and they all sounded super once I dialed in the VTA.

I assume that "parallel" may be a bigger factor on some arms, but I have not experienced such with my older (various) SME's.

DeKay

I measured the old mat at 4.2mm and the new one at 2.6mm.

Which is a difference of 1.6mm or 1/16th of an inch.

If the arm is 9” then the angular change is 1/(16x9) which is 1/144.
(That is gross 😎)

So it is 1/144 of a radian or ~<1/3 of a degree. I would not worry about 0.4 degrees if you have a stylus that is elliptical.
Maybe a line contact would notice that… but you probably do not have that type of stylus.

Does it sound good?

Holmz:

1.5-2 mm makes a big difference in SQ with my current deck/cartridge (same with the past ones).

As adjusting the arm height on my current SME 3009 non-improved is a PITA I set it up for average thickness LP's and I use a lifter/under mat for thinner LP's (the thinner one's are generally "import" LP's from Europe issued in the 70's/early 80's).

I'm currently using the first version of the Grado Gold Prestige (previously used the Silver version).

All styli have been OEM.

DeKay

Holmz: Yes it is elliptical and it sounds great to my ears. Both L and R are clear and it's tracking well. I really can't compare it to anything other than spotify though.. 

DeKay: I am unfamiliar with SME. Is that the type of tonearm I have? I will definitely experiment with a lp under the mat and see if it sounds better then go from there 

Thank you all for the great advice. I'm learning a lot