VTA my compromise in setting

@dekay 

The mean might be closer to 155 but the 160 is close enough.  Today I played a 1976 German pressing of the Doors that weighed 114gr and it sounded great to my ears .  What weight record is your cartridge level ? SME like my ex-Rega have tapered arms making the use of a level arm " APITA " .

My thought on mats is that if I used one for lightweight records I would want to use a different weight for the rest of the records to keep the sonic consistency then that would open another can of worms ,Which design , do I try different materials etc .  

So sticking to " My Compromise "  locked in with a bolt VTA setting . 

My TT has an acrylic platter with a lead mat !

SME like my ex-Rega have tapered arms making the use of a level arm

Use the headshell to determine if the tonearm is parallel to the platter  

Happy Thanksgiving 

True, first I check to see if the cartridge is level then I use the straight arm because you have a longer parallel line for better accuracy .

Now in about an hour I'll be ready for pumpkin and pecan pie .

I set VTA to what the major majority of my 2000, or so, LP's are thickness wise (I don't know the weight).

My SME 3009 II non-improved is not completely level to the platter, but it's close and sounds fine.

As mentioned, I never experienced sound differences with slight VTA variations until I started using Grado.

I have Silver and Gold Grado Prestige bodies and the removable OEM styli appear to be the same.

The Silver and Gold sound the same to me, though the Gold had a higher retail price.

My main speakers are vintage 8" wide band single drivers (Stephens Trusonic 80FR and Elac S-517), so I'm missing response below 50Hz and above 10K-11K Hz.

Your cartridge seems to be fine with slight variations in VTA as were the Sure V15 III's I used for years.

DeKay

Happy Day After Thanksgiving dekay

I had a Gold Prestige and liked it before I started using a Sonata and then a Master wood body . 

I only know the weight because I use my wife's food scale which I use for the records and making chocolate chip cookies . For $10.00 ! at Amazon you might check it out .