VdH VTA setting preferences

Hi Dgad. The .35mV Condor has an internal coil resistance of 36 ohms. Using the standard 25x multiplier, that puts the (theoretically) optimum load at 900 ohms. And the overall range in which you should find your best setting (+/_ 50%) 450 ohms to 1350 ohms.

So you're probably close to perfect at 1Kohm. If it were me, I'd start raising it in 100 ohm increments until the bass started thinning out and the mid/highs started getting bright, glarey, grainy and/or shrill, and then back off.

The best way to set the SRA (stylus rake angle) for any cartridge is as follows:

Tape the platter so it can't spin.

Get a small first surface mirror (from an old SLR camera. They have lots of 'em at camera repair shops now.) and put it on the platter (without a record) near the outside where the stylus sets down.

Take off anti-skate, but make sure VTF is correct.

Lower the stylus to the mirror (get some good light too) and viewing the stylus from the side with a 50x pocket microscope, raise/lower the tonearm until the stylus is perfectly vertical, ie it lines up with its own reflection in the mirror (for a vdH stylus, this will be a perfect hourglass shape.)

To add 1.5 degrees of SRA using a standard 9" (23cm) tonearm, raise the tonearm post approx. 6mm. This is an excellent starting point, and by raising or lowering the arm 1mm at a time from this point, and listening carefully, you may improve over this setting or you may not :~)

I have a vdH Frog and followed the instructions on the van den Hul website for setting VTA, which does indeed advise that the arm be slightly raised at the pivot end.

After much experimentation, I was still not satisfied that I was getting everything out of the cartridge. Owning a VPI Aries with a VPI JMW 10.5 arm, I consulted VPI, as they have a lot of experience with the Frog / JMW arm combo. They advised that the pivot end should be slightly down. Here is the e-mail, in pertinent part:

"From our own usage of this combination and from overall industry designs we have found that the Frog usually sounds the best with the back down slightly and the tracking weight around 1.5 grams. The biggest changes in sound when doing VTA happen when you are in the sweet spot. I do not think you are their [sic]. Try lowering the arm so that the back is slightly below level and rebalance your system for this setup."

Once I did this and really dialed it in, the cartridge sounded much better (more balanced, more extended, much better timbre ... just way more right). I do not know whether this result is unique to the VPI arms with the Frog (the resonant frequency of the Frog with that arm is not ideal, even though it is a popular combo), but the Frog features the same frontpole and suspension as the Grasshopper IV, and the same stylus shape (VDH - IS), radii (2 x 85 microns) and suggested VTA (22 degrees) as the Condor, Colibri and Grasshoppers.

I have a friend who also ran a JMW arm with Frog combo for several years, and he had the exact same experience. I'll ask him to chime in.

I am using an SME V & repeating VTA is difficult. I did repeat VTF measurments w. different VTA & I found that the VTF did not vary with VTA in regards to my SME V. This runs counter some articles & threads I have read. I have damped my SME V w. Blue Tack. This was very positive as I was using my Koetsu & the sound improved . I am seting VTF via the counterweight and not via the dynamic spring. I was recommended to do so but honestly never heard a difference. This is a major departure for me compared to my Koetsu in sound. It is beginning to open up now.

I am wondering that by using the Blue Tack I have increased the effective mass of the arm & could change the resonant character from what is optimal for my Condor compared to my Koetsu. The main arguement against 12 inch arms is the increase in size and mass. The arm is balanced for the increase in mass with the damping being placed at both ends of the arm.

Thanks for all the advise so far. No harm in trying but repeating is a pain w. the SME V

No negative! What cartridge maker in their right mind would have you tilt their cartridge backwards to get the correct SRA?

Well, ask any Shelter owner!

I didn't have my Shelters loaded too low either. Besides, IME impedance loading and VTA/SRA have quite different effects on sound quality.

Impedance loading simply alters frequency response. Gross changes in VTA/SRA may alter frequency response, but it's the subtle adjustments that bring the sound to life. These integrate the time domain response of different frequencies without changing tonal balance at all. The effect is quite different from an impedance adjustment.

My experience with the vdH Frog has been identical to that described by Raquel above. Set up as recommended on the vdH web site with the pivot end slightly inclined, the cartridge sounded tipped up in the highs and emphasized surface noise. The sound was much better with VTA in the perfectly neutral position, and, when set up with the pivot end declined very slightly, IMO the sound was best. During my first round of these set-up experiments, I was using the VPI JMW-10 tonearm and the Lamm LP2 phono stage with a fixed impedance of 40 ohms. If anything, this impedance loading was too low for the Frog. which prefers a loading of about 500 ohms. In my latest round of experiments, I was using my SME IV tonearm and the Manley Steelhead phono stage. I experimented with impedance loading of 200 ohms and 400 ohms, and the pivot-end-declined set-up once again maximized the sound of the cartridge.