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VTA: am I nutz?

Here's why I think I may need to have my head examined. (OTOH, I *did* hit it on the ice last week...hmm...) Anyway, my several weeks' experience in adjusting VTA during play on my Aries 2/JMW-10/Denon 103D has led me to the following conclusion: what I expected was that somewhere in the range of adjustment would be a smaller range which sounded better than the rest, and that below it would be dark and lacking in highs, and above it would be hard and bright.

However, my observation is that no such range exists. Rather there is ONE CORRECT SETTING for each record, from which you may not deviate. Nor is the "above is bright" and "below is muddy" rule always the case. In fact, I find that there is very little variation either above or below the magic setting.

Now this may sound contradictory, but it IS true that I make all my adjustments from record to record within a range of about 20-30 increments on the dial. So while the sound doesn't vary in any logical way within that range, the IDEAL setting will always be found within that range. And yes, thicker records will require a higher setting while thinner will require a lower. No mystery there.

I guess my question is this: is this "only one magic point" finding in agreement with that of other people? Or am I some kind of analog mental case?

Please, 'cause I'm about ready to order the straitjacket... ;-)
bublitchki
johnnantais
621 posts
 
Makes you wonder if these difficult stylus profiles aren't in fact a major design flaw: akin to speakers which work well only with one amplifier in the world & etc. Of course, if you are willing to put with it, but I'm too impatient to hear the music I want to listen to, and am addicted to vinyl!
bublitchki OP
14 posts
 
Thank you all for your responses. It should be mentioned that I wore out the set screw on my old Denon DP-60L because I fiddled with the VTA endlessly, and the only way to adjust it was to loosen the screw and raise and lower the arm column manually. Very hard to do in miniscule (and repeatable) increments, as I'm sure we all know. Eventually I ended up trying in vain to grip the sawed-off stub of a screw with my screwdriver. Little pliers didn't work either. Damn...

So that's all to let you know that this is a recurrence of a more long-standing chronic mental disorder. To get rid of it, I tried vaccinating myself with a phonograph needle, but all that did was make me talk all day long.

My next tonearm will have one of those digital readouts for VTA, and will be adjustable by remote control. The reason is that by then I will have completely destroyed my arthritic knees and ankles by jumping up and down from the couch to adjust VTA the old way.

Is all this worth it? All I can say is that when I hit that magic mark, it sounds *so* good. Knees? We don't need no steenkin' knees!
newbee
4,767 posts
 
But Johnnantias, using the same logic I could make a good case for using speakers with poor resolving abilities because it is such a PITA to get them to sound good - they seem to have a bad habit of letting us hear too clearly the sources, pre-amp, amp, cables, etc. But I agree, a conical or eliptical stylus would make things much simpler. Hell, why not just use a porkypine quill. :-)
johnnantais
621 posts
 
Newbee, this is precisely the sort of thing the Sumiko Celebration was designed to address, with its elliptical stylus, and reportedly there is no shortfall of detail, at least at this price point, the implication in many of the reviews that it rates as highly as the best there is, period (because it performs optimally with minimal set-up, thus maximizing its potential). The high-end needs more of this sort of thinking, as the masochism factor is already very high. For this reason I am considering buying one, as I used to own a similar wooden-bodied MC, the legendary Kiseki Purpleheart Sapphire, which used some sort of line-contact stylus profile which wasn't so demanding, and yet was extremely detailed. And, your procupine quill idea isn't so bad...when do you start production?

And Bublitchky, I like your idea for remote-controlled VTA: couldn't you make the adjustment automatic so that once the VTA error is detected it could automatically be compensated for without the need for a remote control? You'd save on batteries! When it's ready, sign me up!
newbee
4,767 posts
 
Johnnantias, Thanks for the reference to the new(?) Sumiko cartridge - I'm all for anthing that makes this vinyl habit less time intensive.
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