SRA is very easy to match to the cutter head rake angle. True, there is/was no absolute standard, but the range of variation is very small, and so even if you don't have a tonearm with on-the-fly adjustable arm height, you can usually find a happy setting that fits most record grooves at least 90% perfectly if not 100% all the time. The trick once again is to find the absolute vertical point described at the beginning of this thread and then go from there.
VTA is another matter altogether. It is the angle of travel described by the cutter head as it moves up and down and depends on the design of cutter's torque tube (something like a cartridge cantilever.) There is some variation here also, but the big (and impossible to match) variation is among cartridges themselves. Cantilever length is all over the place among different cartridges, so it always struck me as folly to even attempt to match cutter VTA. A mismatch wil only create forth order harmonic distortion (if I remember my reading correctly) which is virtually inaudible, and so any attempt to "dial in" VTA by ear would be futile anyway. That's why I get upset when I hear the term "VTA adjustment" in any context. Call it whatever, but what's really going on is SRA adjustment.
Greg, adjusting arm height (in the range we're talking about here) has no effect on stylus overhang. That's function of the position of the tonearm base relative to the platter spindle -- with fine adjustment available via slotted headshell mounting holes, or in the case of SME, a sliding tonearm base.
VTA is another matter altogether. It is the angle of travel described by the cutter head as it moves up and down and depends on the design of cutter's torque tube (something like a cartridge cantilever.) There is some variation here also, but the big (and impossible to match) variation is among cartridges themselves. Cantilever length is all over the place among different cartridges, so it always struck me as folly to even attempt to match cutter VTA. A mismatch wil only create forth order harmonic distortion (if I remember my reading correctly) which is virtually inaudible, and so any attempt to "dial in" VTA by ear would be futile anyway. That's why I get upset when I hear the term "VTA adjustment" in any context. Call it whatever, but what's really going on is SRA adjustment.
Greg, adjusting arm height (in the range we're talking about here) has no effect on stylus overhang. That's function of the position of the tonearm base relative to the platter spindle -- with fine adjustment available via slotted headshell mounting holes, or in the case of SME, a sliding tonearm base.