VTA and 180 gram vinyl

I’m too lazy to adjust for every LP and I am certainly a dedicated analog guy. When Lloyd Walker was here he fussed at me and wanted to show me how "easy" it was to adjust for each thickness.

I told him that once I finished dinner and two beers or some wine that I would probably trash my Koetsu messing with it and preferred leaving it alone. After he relaxed a bit he forgot about adjusting and sat for several hours listening to all kinds of music.

I'm as crazy as any about getting every last bit of performance, but there has to be some fun and spontaneity and with most turntables and arms it not easy to accurately change VTA for every disc.

Thanks, gang. I think you have talked me down from that tree. To continue the discussion....any mat preferences over the standard issue felt?. FYI, I am currently using a Denon DL-110, and am very happy. Overall, I am happy with the turntable. It has only wet my desire for a nicer build quality table, rather than spend hundreds on further upgrades.

I know what you have to go through to adjust VTA, Billbo. I used to own a MMF 7.

Enjoy,

Dan

I'm as crazy as any about getting every last bit of performance, but there has to be some fun and spontaneity ......

Sage words, indeed.

Darn. I guess we're just not having fun and spontaneity. And I was just beginning to believe we did! Learn somethin' every day! ;-)

In theory I agree with Lloyd. OTOH, adjusting height on a rig like an MMF (or even a Walker) wouldn't work for us. That's why we went for a rig with SPONTANEOUS, FUN, VTA-on-the-fly. We're eatin' our cake and havin' it too.

Unfortunately that's not doable on an MMF budget. :-(

Billbo, your notion of a quick mat change rather than dragging out the hex keys makes some sense, but IME (and we do adjust for every LP) the benefits of VTA optimization require a finer adjustment than any mat change could accomplish. Large VTA adjustments often have little or no sonic effect. Tiny adjustments within the very small sweet zone for any particular record have a large effect.

Mat-swapping just isn't subtle enough, and therefore I tend to agree with the others on this thread. Choose a mat you like the sound of and set/forget VTA for now. When/if you can spring for a rig that makes it easier to do, I'll take sides in favor of doing so.

In the words of my amp designer, "Enjoy music, tolerate equipment."