Is extremely accurate "VTA" adjustment necessary?

PsychicAnimal,
Agree with you and Thomas about azimuth. Yes, we're learning, thanks for the props. As for who's obsessive, oh never mind! Trying to teach the VA crowd about belt drive digital? I was ROFL.

We're part owner of a Wally Analog Shop, which let us measure electrically what our eyes and ears told us about our old cartridge. An off-line cantilever and twisted motor make for lousy imaging and seperation. (Duh!) About 8-9db of crosstalk. Ouch.

New cartridge
Set up by eye on the mirror
First measurement with Wally: 0.5db
One tweak just for kicks: 0.2db
Is that okay? :-)

That cleansing and full body purge seems like good advice. Would RRL solutions help? I'd gladly spare the man a bottle or two.

I completely agree with the article. I also want to mention people go wayyyyyy to crazy with obsessing over VTA

While I have nothing substantive to add to this dialog I would think that anyone who wants their LP's to sound as good or better than CD's, and uses a line stylus, would have to pay close attention to VTA on a record by record basis. :-)

With any pivoting arm, the effect of azimuth variation and skating force variation over the playing area of an LP will swamp out any effect of VTA variation between LPs. If you are serious about vinyl, get a linear tracking arm.

Words of wisdom...