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Reducing scratch impact with VTA???

I encountered an odd phenomenon last night. I was re-setting up my cartridge (AT OC9) and decided to lower the VTF to make the cartridge as parallel to the record as possible. On clean vinyl this did have the effect of smoothing out the highs and reducing brightness etc. Good all the way around.

The unexpected thing is what seems to be a reduction in the impact of scratches on playing. I have an old DG Bluenote that has a lot of scratches that were really noticeable on my old cartridge that seemed to be lessened with the new setup. I was actually expecting the scratches to be more pronounced because the cartridge is more sensitive and this definitely turned out not to be the case.

Anyone else ever experience anything like this, or am I imagining it?
grimace
grimace OP
624 posts
 
well, its not really feasible to adjust VTA for indivudual records. There is no manual fine-tune for it. You have to open the allen screw and manually raise and lower the arm. I think its going to be one of those things thats just set up close enough for everything that I play.
rushton's avatar
rushton
2,445 posts
 
A friend shares the same challenge in owning an arm that doesn't allow for easy VTA adjustment. He copes by using an index card across which he's scribed a line for the optimal arm tube height for the various thickness LPs he plays. It's still a not quick and easy adjustment (set screw on the arm pillar), but he's gotten the process down to about 20 seconds and feels pretty comfortable doing it. Of course, this clearly falls into the category of "how much is the difference worth."

Regards,
headsnappin's avatar
headsnappin
295 posts
 
Grimace, have you tried lower than parallel? Many cartridges correct vta is lower in the back than level.
grimace OP
624 posts
 
I had it about parallel (and perhaps a little lower on 200g)and that was too low. Cymbals and strings were badly rolled off. I raised it a very little bit using 180g record for the height and that seemed to do the trick, even for 200g vinyl. I'm very happy with the sound now.

I'm afraid that using the allen key to adjust for every record isn't feasible. If nothing else, the table sits too low on my cabinet. I'd have to crawl around on the floor to do it. Plus the light is bad so I'd have to use a flashlight. I'd rather just turn it on and listen and save my knees.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,475 posts
 
Agreed Gimace....The main thing is to listen and enjoy the record. Stop fussing with it after you are careful about setup, and just enjoy.
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