How to set SRA after determining true vertical?

Dan,take a look at the Acoustic Sounds latest advertising.They're selling our little(well,mine)digital guage(95 bucks on Audiogon)for 185 dollars!MAN,we could have bought them all up,and made enough to buy a Blue Pearl!Well maybe a platter mat,for it.

This business of manufacturers making the cartridge bodies to line up one way or another is kinda cute.You have to be careful here,because I can guarantee that plenty of our little cantilever angles are NOT all exact,from model to model.Whomever the mfgr is!The EAR is the only viable way to discern this.But you all knew this anyway.I just wanted some post time.-:)Heh,heh.

PAUL--"To shrug,or NOT to shrug".That question is inarguable to me,as if we want to really hear/know what our favorite "great" cartridges can do,especially the cream of the crop,it seems to be a no brainer to use something like well recorded classical lp's.Or something of that ilk.
I mean to listen for something like the breath being blown,gently through a flute or oboe(for example)trumps an electric guitar being broken over some "groupie's" head!No?Yet that acoustic guitar/singer song writer disc that Cello played for me,really blew me away.No heavy metal,but heavy duty ambiance and gorgeous tonal shadings.I can only imagine how great Larry's set-up must sound by now.

I kinda smile when some audio maven(reviewer) lists the criteria that makes a particular cartridge(or any component)great,and then goes on to list almost all music listed,as hard rock.Oh yeah,you'll notice they throw in one or two classical war horses,to seem interested in that stuff.
Don't get me wrong.I love rock,and have no boundaries in my musical appetite,but when you want to define the sublimeness of a great transducer,nothing compares to listening to the tonal shadings,and harmonic beauty of the instruments of an orchestra.Get that right,and everything else falls into place!Sid always tells me that though something gets a rave,it is meaningless to him,because he has no concept of what that person values in the LP's he listens to.Or what that particular person values in music reproduction.We all seem to skew a bit,in what type of system presentation we favor.It's called individual taste.
Hear that Raul!Enough with the love affair with Heavy Metal!Jan Allaerts SURELY did NOT design his "magic beauties" with the thought of "hooligans banging heads"!-:)
A little humor,if you will,so please no bombs from south of the border.You know you're still the cartridge kin

Sorry for going on so long.It's been three months that my set-up is down.I have nothing else to do!Hey,Mr amp manufacturer,please hurry up.I've got all my other stuff done already.Enough with the hiking cross country!

Best!

Nsgarch,

I found this to be true as well. Raising the arm at the pivot point by 6-8mm improved the sound dramatically. Better bass extension and tautness (very punchy) combined with more detailed highs.

I tried this compared to a level arm tube postion and sligthly lower height of the arm from true parallel. I found that a lower than parallel arm tube position seemed to bloat and diminish the detail of the bass and soften the highs.

Maybe the "right" SRA of the tip in the grooves compared to the original cut is irrelevant. Maybe all we're really doing by determining our preferred SRA or VTA settings is taming the particular sonic signatures of certain tonearm and cartridge combinations.

Andrew, don't be skeptical. There is absolutely no mystery here. It's all physics and simple geometry. The most important thing to remember when approaching the matter of setting correct SRA, is to have all the other settings perfect beforehand. IMO, the proper order for setting up TT/TA/cart. is as follows:

1.) Level the platter, and then cross-check to make sure the headshell is level (across, not front to back) -- especially important if the headshell is not adjustable (like an SME V!)

2.) Install the cartridge and adjust the stylus overhang at the spindle.

3.) Adjust the cartridge yaw (rotation as seen from above) to reduce tracking error at two points across the record using one of the many cartidge alignment gauges available.

4.) Set the VTF -- at the top of its range if it's a new cartridge, less if already broken-in. Use a digital stylus gauge that reads to 1/100 gram (two decimal places.) Do not apply antiskate yet. You'll need it off to check the stylus vertical position.

5.) Then set the arm parallel to the platter. By eye is good enough. I sometimes use one of those little round bubble levels. They weigh only .15 gm, so you can put it right on top of the headshell before setting the stylus on the record, without fear of cartridge damage.

6.) Now you can begin the SRA setup process. First find where the stylus is vertical as I explained earlier -- and which was the reason for this thread ;-)) -- and then raise the tonearm post 4 or 5 mm.

7.) Now you can set the antiskate. I do it visually if I can (meaning if I have a high compliance cart. which lets me see the cantilever shift with the application of AS force) Otherwise set it by the numbers. Using a test record can also be helpful.

8.) NOW you are ready to begin listening and moving the tonearm post sligntly up or down from the +4 mm setting.

I cringe when people make absolute pronouncements, but honestly, you must follow this process exactly if you expect meaningful results.

Nsgarch,

Good points. I pretty much followed your process, however I began with setting VTF on the low range. I'll begin experimenting with higher VTF's and resume the SRA testing.

Thanks.

Andrew

Doug,

I knew exactly what the shrugs, nods, etc., meant. And interpretting those indicators is what made it so much fun to watch. I hope we can all get together again before too long. I will have another pre-amp by then and quite possibly another phono stage as well. I'll bring more jazz next time so as not to put Paul off so much! :) I believe I also heard some disparagement towards Nashville so I'll leave the Pickin' music behind as well. ;) Seriously, that was very "eye-opening" to hear how much difference there is between recordings of different musical genres.

SirSpeedy, I guess we'll just have to watch as someone else makes the money. Again! BTW, you once warned me about listening to other's systems and how it can lead to a certain amount of displeasure with your own. Well, it's happened to me. But I do think it is a good thing in the end since what most of us are after is to build our systems as good as we can get them. I also agree with you about different music. I'm fortunate to have a friend who is a very highly trained jazz trombonist. He's taught me a lot about jazz over the last two years so I'm beginning to gain an appreciation for it. Classical is going to take me a while longer but I do have many fairly good recordings both on vinyl and cd.