How to set SRA after determining true vertical?

Andrew,

I don't know if Dan_Ed noticed when he visited us a few weeks ago, but our armtube is not level either. It really doesn't matter that much. I rarely hear any sonic effect that I would attribute to armtube angle. What we do hear is best explained by the SRA-matching Nsgarch and Jon Risch described.

Glad to learn you're achieving great results! The more you play around with it the easier it gets to hear. When you start putting little yellow stickies on each LP jacket to record arm height settings, we'll know you've gone over edge - like me! ;-)

Hey Doug,time to sell the Mazda and go for the Air Tangent "electro",where you can set VTA by remote and have a cute little digital readout.The price of gas DEMANDS this of you!!

Doug,

Yellow stickers. Maybe. The more I learn and experiment the more I'm becoming a "believer" in the importance of arm/cartridge parameter optimization. The next step is to experiment with VTF.

Regarding your comment: "I rarely hear any sonic effect that I would attribute to armtube angle", I think you mean that it is not the arm tube angle that you are setting directly. However getting the best SRA requires moving the arm up or down, which invairably changes the arm tube angle relative to the record surface.

SRA = f(stylus angle on cantilever, and arm height)

Arm tube angle = f(arm height)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the armtube angle, indirectly, does have a big effect on sonic attributes.

Hi all,

Doug, I do remember that the arm tube seemed a bit low at the pivot but that could have been the angle at which I was viewing it. I've come to learn not to worry so much about arm orientation thanks to threads such as this.

What most impressed me was how you could make a quick adjustment to the TriPlanar and Paul would either nod, winch or shrug. (He did a lot of shrugging with my rock music. :) Paul practically called me a head banger! I think of myself as more of a head banger with finesse, thank yew very much!) Based on my experiences with suspended tables, I swear there were times when my heart would skip a beat watching you quickly, and seemingly without care, beat about the pivot while adjusting VTA. (Not really, Doug is very graceful.)

Andrew, I see where you're going and I'm inclined to agree. IF the armtube angle is based on SRA then, as Neil has shown, changes in the arm angle do directly affect SRA. Perhaps it is picky, but it is important to realize that in the end it is the SRA that makes the difference.

SirSpeedy, if you start using remotes for everything I can promise you'll end up with a bigger spread than mine. Sorry I'm not going to catch up with all of you at VTV. Maybe sometime soon!

SRA is irrelavent. It is the position of the stylus in the groove that counts. The maufacturer designed the cartrridge to achieve that with the arm parrallel to the record surface. To the extent you use different forces and angles you may have to raise or lower the arme to restablish that angle.