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Best tonearm position for VTA?

What is the best position to have your tonearm in when setting generally for VTA? I have seen 3 arguments.First is with the tonearm parallel to the record surface.Second is with the tonearm "tail-down" from parallel perhaps 2-3mm and third is with the "tail-up" anywhere between 7-9mm as postulated by Van Den Hul in the phono FAQ on his website.
stefanl
rockinroni's avatar
rockinroni
287 posts
 

Hey guys I got you all beat, because don't have to make a long post, LOL.

I remenber from a old thread this link to Walker Audio that is really good for setting vta good luck!!

http://www.walkeraudio.com/fine_tuning_your_turntable.htm

peace Ron
rockinroni's avatar
rockinroni
287 posts
 

Hmm?, I just read the whole thread seems Doug already gave the walker reference, Doh!!

Here's the deal.
The top of your cartridge should be parallel with the record surface for the starting point. If your armtube is not tapered you can use the arm tube as a reference to measure this.
Now, you only raise or lower you arm by small increments. If it is way up or down something else is probably is wrong

The Walker site is really good and helps you out.

Good luck, remember it will be worth it when you get done. I have found it if you have everything else set correctly first.

Your vta sweet spot should be near parallel, if not right on it.

Peace
Ron
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
To give credit where it's due, Nsgarch was the first to mention the Walker link on this thread, not me.

I stumbled across it several years ago while googling around. I subsequently forgot the link but remembered the content and wrote out essentially the same ideas from scratch. Rushton was kind enough to point out I was duplicating Walker's page - saved me a bunch of typing!

Dan_Ed,
What kind of wood do you prefer for those blocks? Cocobolo?
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
DougDeacon, there actually walnut and hard maple. I've been in New England long enough to start turning Yankee. I don't through anything away, especially from my humble wood shop. The blocks I am using are from my audio rack system. I pulled them out of the scrap pile and they seem to be about 1/8 inch different in thickness, so each one seems to get me in the ball park with the Vector depending on if I have the Glider or the 103 mounted. The Glider likes to be way up, the 103 likes to be up just a little.

I don't get the comments from some that the best VTA is always near parallel. Not to say that they are wrong just that I have not found that to be the case with my setup, nor did I find that to be the case with my old MMF 7 and V15VxMR setup. Seems most cartridges in my system like to be somewhat tail up. Perhaps it is because my 10t's are kind of difficult to tame in the lower frequencies. I am finding that I usually have to raise the arm to focus the bass, which is great cuz the HF seems to like that.
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
RE: Tail-down tonearm configuration: I agree with Dan_ed's findings. For tail-down configuration to be viable, it seems to me the cartridge maker would have had to build the cartridge with so much SRA to begin with, that to get the SRA down to the 1 degree (+/-) ballpark would require lowering the rear end of the tonearm. So would anyone care to speculate on (or explain to me what I'm missing here) why a cartridge maker might want to do that??
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