Rega RP10 VTA shims

I have observed that the Rega Tonearm + Rega cartridge have a positive VTA (a pivot end raised slightly ) . So, we can not consider only the cartridge height to determine how many shims we should use to adjust the VTA in a Rega Turntable when using a cartridge from other brand. It will vary from cartridge to cartridge. Actually, the measure we should be worried about is the SRA. Much more important than the VTA which at the end is one of the ways we will utilize to try to achieve the optimum SRA adjustment.

jcarr,

can you comment (similar to the kleos) on the height of the delos cartridge? is it 17.43mm as well? i'm trying to dial in the vta for mine on a rp10 as well.

cheers,
- j

Hi Vinylkid: These days I try to keep the height and stylus-to-mounting-screws distance as similar as possible across all of our cartridges.

I just looked at my CAD drawings, and according to those, the height range of the Delos should fall between 17.377 and 17.48mm.

hope this helps!

kind regards, jonathan carr

Vinylkid, I took Mr. Carr's advice to the first step and bought 3.5mm in shims but yet to have had one made at the 3.43 as suggested due to time and budget. But I have been very pleased with the VTA setting for my Kleos. I wonder as well if the .57mm will make enough difference since vinyl thickness varies as well. It is unfortunate that Rega doesn't accommodate a more practical method of VTA adjustment, but I believe their cartridges provide optimum performance. So offering easy adjustment may be viewed as contradiction. Just my opinion of course.
One observation with my setup, I would pass along is, that this table is sensitive to the surface. My cabinet is an older hollow body cabinet and I realized a "guitar body" resonance in the upper bass/lower mid range. I am using the Aurio's with an MDF cored platform from my LP12 and this has eliminated that issue. However I am going to use a maple cutting board once I get it completed and hope to further the progress.
I would be curious what you are finding with your table.
Regards
Theo

Hi Theo: I seem to have overlooked this question from you:

>On the demag or degaussing concern, what is your thought on the method of shorting the leads by touching the RCA connectors?

Shorting the cartridge while playing limits the amount of current pushed through the coils to whatever the cartridge can generate on its own. Ergo, it is the most gentle method of fluxbusting, and most likely can be used without qualms even on cartridges with magnets that are not so resistant to demagnetization (Alnico).

>I would like your direction on this before I risk ruining a perfectly good cartridge.

The present Lyra cartridges all use super-strong Neodymium 50 magnets (their powerful magnetic field is why metal particles from the turntable environment accumulate in the coil vicinity). In order to demagnetize these magnets, you would need to push so much current through the cartridge coils that they would vaporize first. Ergo, even if you use an active fluxbusting device, as long as the fluxbusting circuit is in proper working order, I don't believe that any of our present cartridges would suffer negative effects.

FWIW, an EE friend in Japan has built a re-magnetizing machine for MC cartridges. He reports that when used with Alnico-based MC cartridges from the 1960s and 1970s, the cartridge output voltage increased, indicating that magnet strength went up.

The later Alnico magnet formulas were engineered to better resist demagnetization, and should therefore benefit less from remagnetization. The rare-earth magnets (samarium cobalt, neodymium and whatnot) are inherently quite resistant to demagnetization, and probably would not benefit from remagnetization (although I doubt if remagnetization would hurt anything).

kind regards, jonathan