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Dialing in my analog rig - Need help

I took a giant leap forward in sound quality this past weekend after deciding to check the setup that was provided by the dealer. Hell, I watched him and thought he covered everything. I was largely unhappy with the sound of my newly acquired rig. I am now only slightly unhappy as I discovered the following.

Being that it was a used Turntable/cartridge with no manual I downloaded the manual and performed the following. What I found was that my cartridge was way out of alignment according to the jig provided by VPI. That was a painless fix I than checked the levelness of the tonearm as it pertains to the platter. What I found was that the tonearm was set (or never set) all the way at the bottom of its adjustment. Doh! So I cranked that up to "level with platter". Was that how former owner had it set? Then there was the alignment of the head shell and of course that was off too. Now I was on to the tracking force which I defaulted to slightly more than 2 grams. The gauge I have is kind of crude compared to what the dealer was using but then the dealer seemed to miss a few items anyway...

As I mentioned earlier in this post, although being very unhappy it has gotten a LOT better. Many smiles have practiced over the last few days but one thing that still plagues my setup is the graininess or lack of smooth sounding highs. It's detailed as hell but vocals still have a "grain" to them. Nice staging and a goodly amount of air. I just seem to lack the smoothness I thought would be natural to vinyl.

Setup is;
VPI Scoutmaster, Dynavector XXV Mark II which feeds a PS Audio GCPH phono stage then direct to a Pass Labs amp. MBL 121 speakers. No preamp yet - still looking.

What's next?
128x128desalvo55
desalvo55's avatar
desalvo55 OP
257 posts
 
I'm trying to determine what arm I have. How do you measure it? Total length or from the actual stem? Going to the VPI web site I still couldn't determine the model. No mechanical anti-skate, it's done with the tonearm wire. It measures 10.5 inches total lenth. The wires feed a JM Memorial box.

Sorry for the dumb question but now I want to know.
raquel
841 posts
 
The single biggest obstacle by far to analog performance is incompetent set-up - there are very few people who really know what they're doing. Where to start ... the above referenced link to cartridge set-up states:

"One could spend a good portion of their remaining days on earth tweaking their cartridge's VTA. It will, after all, vary depending on the thickness of each record played."

Can anybody play this game? VTA depends upon the angle of the cutter head, which varies from LP to LP, and is not dependent upon the thickness of the LP.
desalvo55's avatar
desalvo55 OP
257 posts
 
I can't for the life of me honestly say I can decern the difference in sound with different loading. I'm pretending to say that 100 ohms sounds about right, except of course the bit of high frequency harshness and general over the top brightness for lack of better term. It's just not warm of cuddly and I'm a nut about detail so I error towards lean.

I've researched the arm and come up with - nothing. Maybe it's a VPI classic 1? Doesn't say classic on the headshell though. This is a model 2005 Scoutmaster so I must assume that this is the original tonearm.

The VTA as I mentioned earlier was set (or not at all) to the very bottom of the travel. The arm angled upward. Who'd do that? Maybe that's why the table was traded in for a 10X more expensive model.

I've gotten some good advice leading me to the possibility of a known setup guru. Still wish to learn this craft myself.
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
Have you called VPI ? Maybe they can help with model id (and manual) when you describe it to them over the phone...
stops
56 posts
 
You should have the arm higher than level at the back. In spite of all that has been said in this thread it DOES make a difference if you get the VTA close if not exact (for all the reasons mentioned). Read the post of 4/2/11 on "VTA and cartridge loading" I put up for my slant on this subject.
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