zyx universe cartr.- ideal weight -ideal vta ,

Using the guidance in some of the earlier responses on this string, i found that the lighter vtf (1.7) brought out more of the magic of this cartridge than the heavier settings. I followed DD steps to lower vtf to the mistracking point and then increase vtf slightly. I am not using the triplanar arm but rather a linear airbearing arm but my system would mistrack about 1.65 (horrible sound when mistracking!) but it settled down about 1.68 and the sound opened up about 1.7 to 1.75. I also tweaked the vta after setting the vtf. I went back and forth until i was satisfied i had the best sound. The cartridge is very close to level (slight tail up) with the vtf at 1.7 for a 180 g record. I use a little dampening with my arm(I have a tapered pin that is in a dampening trough with about 1/4 inch of the pin in the oil). In my opinion, this cartridge sounds better at the low end of vtf versus the high end. One point to make, large changes in vta will impact vtf and overhang so you need to avoid large changes in one without adjusting the other

I just can't hear the significant sound improvement over a small range dialing in on the sound sweat spot when adjusting vta

Lucky you! Set the base of the cartridge level and get used to its sound before giving yourself fits over VTA. We dial it in because we hear it and it annoys us if it's off. Otherwise we wouldn't bother.

I guess I here it most in the rich overtones (I play around with upright bass)

You can bring those in or out by fine tuning VTF, as Oilmanjo described. Getting VTF just right has a bigger impact with this cartrdge than getting VTA just right.

I've also found I can vary the balance between musical heft and weight vs. overtones and transparency by adjusting antiskate. More A/S = more heft, less = more delicacy.

when I'm heavily dialing vta it seems that my 233.5 offset ... gets quite a bit out of alignment

Normal on a TriPlanar, unfortunately. That's why the instructions say to loosen the VTA set screw and then resnug it to "barely loose" before moving the arm up or down. This minimizes play in the locking mechanism, which is what allows offset to change.

After making a VTA adjustment, I hold the bearing cage with my right hand and try to pivot it gently back and forth while I tighten the VTA set screw. That assures the set screw is properly seated against the vertical channel.

should I only be going a few revolutions on the vta adjustment?

From the cartridge bottom level position, our entire record collection falls within about 3 revolutions of the VTA dial, 1.5 either way. Going beyond that is very rare. I can only think of 1 or 2 records out of a thousand that need a bigger adjustment than that.

The actual sweet zone for any particular LP is VERY tiny. If you're spinning the dial around whole turns at a time you'll zoom right past it and probably hear no change at all. Try a familiar record and adjust in 1/10 turns at a time, or less.

Oilmanjo,

Seems like you're hearing pretty much what we hear. I agree with all your points. A few hundredths of a gram above mistracking is always best for us too.

We've gotten so we can run VTF down to the sweet spot and predict today's mistracking point without actually having to go there and come back up. But when learning the technique it's best to work through the whole range, to get a feel for how it works and sounds. It took me months to get my head around the methodology, but since then it's been consistent and it gets easier every day.

Doug
It was interesting to get to the mistracking point. I tend to make a small move and listen for a side of an lp before making another move. I had actually been near 1.65 for a couple of days and was playing an album when it mistracked. It was a screeching sound for just a moment then it settled down until it hit another stretch of "busy" music and screeched again. After three or four incidents on this record, i increased the vtf slightly and played the same side(i know there are those who say that is taboo), but i needed to know if i had hit the mistracking point. It played good at 1.68 with no screech or mistrack. I played the same track the next night again at 1,70 and as i described, the highs locked in and the bass became more solid. I played several other albums that night and was very pleased with the sound. I came back a couple of nights later and moved the vtf up first to 1.72 the up to about 1.85 in small increments. What i found is that above 1.75, the highs starte losing some of the zing and clarity and the soundstage seemed to collapse compared to 1.7 to 1.75. The bass response was solid in all of the ranges above 1.70. I have not played vtf above 1.9. Thanks for yours and others ideas in this universe thread. It gave me the confidence to move to areas that i had not been before.

DOug

I guess what I was saying is I must not be in the sweet spot and am doing too much vta dialing
then again I was starting from parallel arm not parallel base of cartridge

I did hear times where the transients sounded all wrong
(edgy top end) and times where the bottom end sounded syrupy and congested, and a few brilliant sounding lps

I'll try to get things more exact and dial in very small amounts. Should nail vtf first (1.95 and 4 anti skate rings)

thanks
Tom

Oilman,

Your experience matches ours. The precise numbers differ from cartridge to cartridge, climate to climate, but all the effects are the same - including that variability from LP to LP and passage to passage.

Tom wrote:

I did hear times where the transients sounded all wrong (edgy top end) and times where the bottom end sounded syrupy and congested...

That's great! You just heard what to listen for. :-)

Edgy HF's on transients indicate the arm is too high. Try moving the arm down in TINY increments until transients are crisp and integrated rather than edgy. This is exactly what I listen for when fine tuning VTA. (Remember, to drop below the setting you want and come back up, to take up backlash in the threads.)

Syrupy LF's usually (not quite always) indicate the arm needs to move up, again in tiny increments. As you approach the VTA sweet spot the bass notes tighten up and attain maximum amplitude. This is what Paul listens for.

We invariably agree on the same setting, even though our ears/sensitivities tend to focus on opposite ends of the spectrum. So listening for either of the above may work for you.