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Is extremely accurate "VTA" adjustment necessary?

Here's a very interesting article by Geoff Husband of TNT on the importance (or better relative unimportance) of overly accurate VTA adjustment.

Exposing the VTA myth?

A short quote form the article:

Quote - "VTA, or Vertical Tracking Angle is one of those topics that divides opinion...That 'VTA' matters is indisputable, but the purpose of this article is to examine the validity of the claims made for the relative importance of VTA...SRA/VTA matters of course, but in the real world not THAT much, rigidity, simplicity and lateral alignment are all more important"

What are your thought and comments on this issue?
restock
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,693 posts
 
Gregadd:

Go away until you have "first hand" experience on anything other than ZIP/Whack Off in this regard.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Isn't Fremer the one who started measuring TTs specs a while ago and then stopped because their specs weren't really good and that would affect advertising?
gregadd
574 posts
 
first hand experience? try thirty years as an audiophile. I have heard or owned most of the major turntable, tonearm, cartridge combinations. i currently own a vpi aries 2,sme 4 and benz glider. I have old sota star waiting as a back up.
As far as Michael Fremer is concerned, while I am a fan of his, it is a fact that he reviewed a set of tools that take the guess work out cartridge tonearm alignment. A stylus is so small that even the smallest movement has an effect. anyone claiming to be able to get those adjustments right by eye strains crdebility!
tbg
5,263 posts
 
One reason why the Wheaton tonearm was so easy to use was the micro adjustments it allowed. I now have a Schroeder, however, so I now know the benefits of its design. What we really need is a rigid, low mass, easily adjusted linear tracking arm. Having gotten my Schroeder adjusted, I can patiently await this perfect arm.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Having long since gone to a linear tracking arm, it is some time since I had to make all those critical adjustments. However, for most pickup adjustments, the technique of inverting one channel, AT THE PICKUP BY REVERSING WIRES OF ONE CHANNEL, is probably better than any measurement method. This approach adjusts the axes of pickup sensitivity (what you hear) rather than some mechanical axis that, even if perfectly measured, may, or may not, correspond to the axes of sensitivity.
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