Is extremely accurate "VTA" adjustment necessary?

Okay! I seemed to have lost this argument. It just seems to me that your record could care less what angle the record was cut at. I'm sure you all have seen pictures of a stylus contact point. Maximize it and you'll get the most out of your cartridge. It just happens that vta was the last and most difficult alignment that has to be done. The fact that it constantly changes only adds to the myth. I owned the martin logan cls, one of the most ruthlessly revealing speakers ever made. I can say that vta was just one of the many things that affect sound. You can't ignore it but you don't need to worship its alter.

Gregadd, I think the last 6 sentences of your post make a very fair statement of reality for VTA, particularly:

You can't ignore it but you don't need to worship its altar.

Best regards,

Well, I think I am certainly convinced now that my next table/arm combo will have the appropriate facilities for adjusting vta. After all this discussion I really need to try it for myself. There's nothing better than experiments, theory is not always a good substitute. I am note sure though whether I will get really obsessive about it, since I usually prefer to just listen without tweaking.

Doug, you really brought up another good argument earlier, although I think it is a very good one FOR vta adjustments if done properly. I also think that there is a chance that the cartridge alignment is off due to the slightly changed geometry when adjusting vta. However, for minute adjustment in VTA with a well-executed tonearm mount and vta adjuster, this should not change the geometry more than putting on a record of different thickness. This also would mean that we should certainly adjust for different record thickness to be true to the changed geometry.

Also this makes me really doubt the cheaper vta devices for Rega arms like expressimo and incognito. When you loosen the arm, change vta and then retighten, everything could have changed: The tonearm could slightly shift around in the mount changing cartridge alignment completely, you might hit an unstable thread on the mount, etc. Not the best method to get reproducible results. The bottom line is: If you want to bother about vta, you better do it right with a well-executed mechanism.

I really have to thank everybody here again. I thought the discussion was really helpful and really brought out some of the usually hidden issues in adjusting vta. And I do have to agree:

You can't ignore it but you don't need to worship its altar.

Again best wishes,

Rene

A used 1200 will let you know if on the fly VTA is for you.

Restock,

There are very high dollar VTA on the fly implementations that require loosening and retightening. The difference in the ones I have seen is that the tolerances are much more exact and reduce the amount the arm can move on its own while loose.