Koetsu loading

I have Urushi, the tracking weight is somewhat in David's range. Sound is a little dull when weight is over 1.9 gram on my Graham Phatom tonearm. VTA varies with individual's music preference. My tonearm isn't completely parallel to the platter, the end of the tonearm slightly tilted at the end to get the highs for my taste. The angle of the cantilever really matters and should be the reference point. It also depends the type of vinyl you have, ie 120 gm, 150 gm, 180 gm or 200gm. Majority of my vinyl is between 150-180 gm.

I would start loaded at 1k and go from there.

Samleung,

That sounds reasonable. I always set the arm parallel to a 180g LP. I have the feeling that the bottom end of the stone is not parallel to the LP in this case. Maybe it's a design feature. What are your resistor and caps values, unless you are using a Koetsu step up transformer?

Samhar,

There must be some system setup issue, if you are happy with 1k. You should try something about 100 Ohm.

Emil,

In theSept 2009 Stereophile's "Analog Corner" Michael Fermer discusses setting the SRA at 92* and letting the arm and body sit where they will as a starting point.

I am using the 121 Ohm setting on my IO. Lower than that doesn't sound as good to me. For VTF I use 1.9g. For VTA I shine a light from the other side and use a magnifier to visually set the stylus to be nearly perpendicular to the LP but raked slightly back. If you get the light just right it will shine through the stylus, making it more visible. I don't think using the body itself as a reference is as reliable as looking directly at the stylus itself.