Is extremely accurate "VTA" adjustment necessary?

I think it depends on how fussy you are, and how much trouble you want to go through to perfect the sound of every record.

Since record thicknesses vary, you'd need to adjust the VTA, for every record you play, if you want "perfection". I don't think anybody does this.

I'm pretty fussy, and I just make a single setting that is good for all my records, but only perfect for some of them.
I still enjoy my listening.

You can get "crazy" trying to make everything perfect all the time.

Thank you Rushton and Tom for your contributions here.

I think the question here is whether changes of 0.1mm in tonearm height are actually necessary. I would agree based on my personal experience that changes on the order of 0.5mm to 1mm do make a difference. The question is more about smaller changes than that.

The problem is that I have to mostly agree with the article. Following the same geometrical argument I do also think that the variations from cartridge to cartridge, temperature fluctuation, thickness variations in records (even in audiophile ones) are much bigger change the vta/sra angle more than a tenth of a millimeter change in the tonearm height.

Looking at my turntable and even with a record clamp and an unwarped LP you see changes in the record of more than 0.1mm which would say that the vta/sra angle changes as much as if you would change the tonearm height on the same order. On a highly resolving system this would change the sound as the LP goes round at 33rpm. This would be quite damning result for music reproduction through LPs. I good measurement of the thickness variations is to shine a laser pen on the record and look at the reflected light some meters away. You then geometrically determine the difference in height as the record goes round. My guess is that unless you use an inner and outer record clamp you will have variations bigger that the 0.1mm adjustment possible on some tonearms. Otherwise one could be quite busy adjusting the VTA as the record turns.

I would think in agreement with the author that mechanical stability, when a more staple thread of the VTA adjuster is hit, accounts for most of the difference in the sound for these tiny adjustments. Rushton, this could for example explain your observation a couple of months ago, when adjusting vta and hitting a "mechanical" sweet spot.Roy Gandy would be really happy about this argument, although I think he goes to the other extreme by not providing any possibility of vta adjustment on his arm.

A good example is the new vta adjuster for the Teres turntables. They allow adjustment of the vta to 0.0254 mm (1/1000 inch). If we can here differences in the sound on that order we really would be distracted by the VTA variations during the turning of a record. On the other hand I do see a good reason for this degree of fine adjustment. If I can adjust the vta by 0.0254 mm I can set a more reasonable 0.25 mm very accurately and reproducible. Also you have ten possibilities to hit a good thread.

Meine zwei Pfennige...

Rene

I use an additional DIY wool felt "rider/spacer" mat for thin LP stock (set the VTA using thicker late 50's/early 60's RCA "shaded dog" stock).

During the Winter months I use DIY cork "Spot Mats" (made up thicker/thinner versions).

I have some killer stuff on thin import LP's (like Mari tribal music), and it sounds nicer/fuller with the thicker mats.

Simple, easy and effective.

"Since record thicknesses vary, you'd need to adjust the VTA, for every record you play, if you want "perfection". I don't think anybody does this."

Hello. I know several people who do exactly this, ourselves included. Ask Colitas. I just cleaned, played and returned some LPs for him and forgot to remove our yellow stickies from the inner sleeves. Damn! Now he knows our secret arm height settings for three different copies of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'! :-)

Even worse, it's more complex than just adjusting for record thickness. Different cutting engineers and record labels used different cutting angles, sometimes even for multiple copies of the same LP. I have a couple of boxed sets with different arm heights for different discs. Uniquely, so far, I have one London FFss with a different setting for each side! That struck even me as bizarre. I suppose Fred cut the lacquer for side A on Monday and Bill cut the lacquer for side B on Tuesday. Or something.

Easy, repeatable and on-the-fly arm height adjustment is precisely the reason we replaced a pretty nice sounding HIFI-modded OL Silver with a TriPlanar. For us it's just part of playing an LP, like CF brushing or screwing on the clamp. I think of at as tuning my instrument, which it is in a way. The good news: once the optimal setting is found it goes on the sticky. Now it's a 2 second adjustment every time I replay that record.

SRA adjustment is certainly a YMMV area. But as Rushton said, if you're willing to take the time then the benefits on some LPs can be astonishing. Like him, we sometimes make adjustments that are very small. The scale on the TriPlanar is accurate to the nearest .007mm (not inches).

The impact of SRA adjustment varies greatly with the type of musical sounds. HF's are more sensitive than LF's, obviously. Long, sustained tones like an organ may produce are fairly insensitive. Sounds with quick transients and decays are quite sensitive, especially if the decay of the instrument is at a different pitch than the leading edge. Piano and percussion are pretty sensitive. Well trained vocalists may be the most sensitive of all. Getting their sibilants just right is a sure sign that SRA is spot-on. Obviously the better and more HF extended the recording, the more it matters.

As for that article, to me it's just another pointless argument offered by a theory-blinded engineer trying to "prove" that I can't hear what I hear. If his theory doesn't explain my hearing, it's of no concern to me. Sure, solidity and lateral alignment are more important. But most of us already have that. As for simplicity, I have no idea how to adjust that! Tri-Mai didn't mention it in the manual. ;-)

Doug thanks for your insights. I know that you and other (TWL etc.) probably know a lot more about this than I do. After all I have only been into analog for a little more that 10 years. I just would like to make some point before you dismiss this article completely.

I think the author does agree with you that different thickness of records need different arm height adjustment, and that you will hear that difference. After all the difference between a thick and thin record can be quite substantial and on the order of an mm. The question here is more on how accurate does it have to be. If 0.0254 mm difference is audible on your system, I think you should hear a variation in your sound as the record turns, since the record thickness is varying more than this. Do you?

Sorry, but this might get quite controversial now. As a physicist I got to take issue with the following statement:

"As for that article, to me it's just another pointless argument offered by a theory-blinded engineer trying to "prove" that I can't hear what I hear."

- First of all the article does not say that you won't be able to hear differences in VTA adjustment.

- Second it does offer an explanation for what you hear if you do micro adjustments. It is just that what you hear might not be the vta/sra adjustment itself but more the mechanical rigidity of the tonearm mounting and selecting a good thread. In particular the triplanar arm might just offer you ten settings with the same average vta (across a record) that offer different rigidity of mounting. This probably is better that if you had only one good setting available. And my guess is that you will hear all the different settings on a good resolving system, except the reason is not the VTA or SRA angle.

- Third, his arguments are purely geometrical, not scientific. The argument just you that other geometric variations are much bigger than adjusting vta to 0.0254 mm accuracy and which should have a bigger impact on the sound. All this discrepancies and error are clearly measurable and like I said you might actually hear them. But then you should hear the VTA adjustment varying as the record is rotating as well.

As a physicist I do believe that there are a lot of things you will be able to hear in a good system that are not measurable and maybe not even scientifically explainable yet. These are complex physical systems and much more difficult to describe than most engineers think. However, geometrical changes in the vat angle just does not seem to be the correct explanation for this phenomenon of being able to hear extremely fine changes in VTA. In particular with turntables resonance control, vibration control, and rigidity are very important. There’s s lot of deaf (and blind) scientist and engineers out there, but this example does in my opinion not fall into this category.

Also the other important point here is that if we know what is going on, maybe there are better engineering solutions out there. The Teres project is a great example for this.

All the best,

Rene