SOTA Star, Grado Refrence arm and XTZ MKV Cart

Congratulations! This should be a nice sounding analog front end once you get it broken in and dialed in. If the cartridge and phono stage have not been played recently, plan on giving them about 50 hours of playing time to break in again, then do a final fine-tuning of your VTA and VTF adjustments (by listening, of course!). The Grado XTZ is a nice cartridge that will really demonstrate its merits on acoustic music, and the SOTA Star is a classic.
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Hi Chad!

Congratulations on the new setup! Now you just need to find a RCM solution that will work for you and you'll be all set.

Good luck,

Dan

Chadlinz,

What a great gift. You're going to have a lot of fun with this set-up. Hopefully you have some set-up tools to give you some guidance on VTF and cartridge alignment. As Rushton mentions for fine tuning VTF and VTA just rely on your ears.

I owned the Star with vacuum pump which served me well for several years. It's an awesome TT. I had SOTA upgrade my original Star Series III to a Nova Series V just recently. Originally I ran my SOTA Star with a PS Audio 4.5, Grado Platinum cartridge and AudioQuest PT-6 tonearm. I'v since upgraded but I remember how well that set-up sounded.

Best of luck with your set-up.

Try running the table minus the vacuum.The Grado arm is a special unit.I loved mine ,until the hydraulics started leaking.The top-end of the Grado cartridge should alleviate a good deal of brightness/leanness in your system.Happy listening!

Yeah, got to get it broken in there cowboy!