Is extremely accurate "VTA" adjustment necessary?

Rene:

6mm is .23 inches. I do not recall making any changes nearly that large, once the arm/cartridges were intially "ballparked" in. This (the small changes) are what made the adjustments somewhat difficult to make, for me anyway.

The less than 1/16" crude change, I make with the rider mats, seems to be approx. the same range (a little more) used with the adjustable arm. I'm guessing the arm was 9-10".

I'm also currently using less than SOTA cartidges, which are not very fussy.

We were trying older Grace and Denon cartridges on the Rega deck (mentioned earlier). Didn't care for the sound of the Denon's and was told that the Grace would be too delicate (my wife and teenage Godson also use the TT).

An interesting LP to try, with an easily adjustable arm, is "The Last Castrato". I have two versions (think the later one was issued on Pearl). It used to sell for <$10 on Ebay.

Gregad,

as long as you dont move the bdoy of the cartridge, pivot to stylus distance is a constant

I worded my post very carefully. If you read it again you'll note I said the stylus-to-arm mount distance would change. Stylus-to-pivot is fixed, as you say, unless the armtube is made of rubber or the cartridge moves in the headshell.

does'nt this mean you also changed the distance when you put on records of different thicknes? by re leveling the arm you have brought it back into alignment.

Point covered, re-read my 6th paragraph.

We're not disagreeing, just awkward stuff to describe in words rather than pictures.

Twl,
Totally agree. Of course obsessing about minute details is the point of this thread, so I'm right at home! ;-)

I have a recent experience that causes me to reopen this thread. I got a new Shindo Labs mat to replace my cork mat on the Garrard 501. Although these mats are both 3 mm. thick. The mat makes an incredible change in sound. As one of these changes is greater body to the sound but diminished sparkle in the top end. I have spent three hours so far adjusting the vta, asmuth, anti-skate, and even dampening on the Schroeder Reference. All of these have proven quite important to what I am hearing and the new mat clearly has superior bass and is quieter. I think I have found the correct asmuth by way of the equal transparency of both channels. Today, I will try the tracking weight and vta some more. The overhang is right on as is the anti-skate.

Anyone who suggests that setting up a tt is easy is crazy.

Viridian, I agree entirely. No one who has ever heard the magic of the right VTA would ever understate its impact.