Best tonearm position for VTA?

Forget about parallel or whatever setting "LOOKS" right,and start to listen for what sounds like the most accurate timbral definition.This should take a few listening sessions with a wide variety of material to play.

Right on! Timbral presentation of familiar (acoustic) instruments is exactly what this is about. The mix of frequencies that constitute the sound of any instrument occur in a certain temporal order. Changing SRA changes the timing of when the stylus engages each frequency cut in the groove, which affects their temporal inter-relationships. The right-sounding SRA falls within a very tiny range of arm heights, but when you find it the sound of the instruments becomes more correct or "real" and every instrument has tighter, stronger micro-dynamics.

Also,and importantly,try to have some GOLDEN EARED audio pals over while you play with the vta.Experimentation is a "GOOD" thing here,and you will learn about your set-up.

Indeed. Two (or more) sets of ears are orders of magnitude better than one, as are two or more brains for problem solving.

Last night I spun the Classic reissue of Munch/BSO/Tchaikovsky, 'Romeo and Juliet' + Strauss, 'Till Eulenspiegel'. Okay, okay, I know it's fluff - but it's FUN fluff.

Curiously, the yellow sticky with arm height settings indicated the same number for Airy 2, Airy 3 and UNIverse. This seemed odd. The Airy 3 usually wanted the arm about 8/100ths of a turn higher than Airy 2, and the UNIverse typically likes it about 2/100ths or so below that. Nevertheless, I set it where the sticky said and spun it up. I wasn't listening critically and didn't pay much attention after that.

Halfway through side one Paul walked in from the den (two rooms away) and asked, "Did you adjust the arm height? It isn't right." Freakin' golden ears! He reset it and we updated the stupid yellow sticky. It was off by 5/100 of a mm. Oy!

Moral: you don't need to be in the sweet spot to hear SRA changes, you may not even need to be in the same room! Say, do CD's need this level of madness?

All due respect, R&J may be fluff, but Till Eulenspiegel is not. The idea that on this forum one must apologize for Richard (not Johann) Strauss is absurd. There are folk herabots who don't feel the need to hide from the fact they listen to Kansas and George Winston (not that there's anything wrong with that)!

Eureka! It's all about methodology! I went over to VA and did a search on VTA postings by jnhvac just as DougDeacon suggested. I found a post where jnhvac describes his method of starting with the cartridge level with respect to the record surface, then lowering from that position about 5 or 6 playing cards. (Real precision measurements here!) Next you start raising the arm 1 card at a time until you get the air around the instruments and the soundstage opens.

This method has worked very well for me tonight with my 103r. Listening to Jean Luc-Ponty's Enigmatic Ocean I can hear every cymbal at a distinctly differenct location. All instruments have much more presence in the room. The most dramatic impact is how the instruments just off center can clearly be heard adding to the sounds. That's the spot I remember stumbling on to with the Glider. Now I believe I have a methodology to re-create this with another cartridge.

Not to put down what is on the Walker page, but I think the talk of lowering the arm until the bass goes heavy was just to much for my pea-size brain to deal with. I understand what they are trying to relate, but it really is all about the presence of the instruments in the room and not the tonal balance, just as you guys have said. You guys keep talking, it will eventually sink into my thick skull!

I can't wait until my Graham tonearm cable shows up so I can mount that 2.2 and really get some precision adjustments!

Just checking back in.I have found as a previous poster mentioned that a tail-down(2-3mm)start does have rewards.Better to start 'fatter'with more bass and then you can hear it approaching some sort of focus as you raise the tail I think.I am into using my ears for the VTF as well.At the moment I use an end track on the first side of the Bluesbreakers album.A drum solo,cymbals and drums can be quite clearly heard changing with weight.

Couple of meaningless thoughts.

#1 "WHEW"--That is ALWAYS my expression after reading a FRIGGIN "QUOTED" comment by "YOU" towards me DOUG!I'm so conditioned(probably by my third grade teacher,in her criticism)that I always think you are about to "BLAST" me when you do that!!NO PROB,though!!

#2 Rnm4--I think you are taking this Fluff thing a bit too far.Of course Strauss was a SERIOUS DUDE,but in the context taken,DOUG was IMOAITOOMF(in my opinion and in the opinion of my friends,second hand clapping?Cello?)really being complementary.I love this piece,but in the overall context of the Classical Genre,it is "LIGHT",and I love it!!

#3 PLAYING CARDS?This hobby is getting more "rediculously" technical than a LEICA RANGEFINDER!!

#4 This "tail up vs down" may have applied more to Howard Hughes's style of flying a plane,with Kate Hepburn on his lap.It is REDICULOUS to talk it to death in vta!!My TRANSFIGURATION TEMPER-V(UNIV. WORTHY I MIGHT ADD)needs,DEMANDS a large backslope of the armtube.Do you know how I found this out?I actually tried a TON of differing variations,and never once came up with any kind of a straight flush!!FORGET THE TECHNICAL CRAP,AND LEARN BY TRIAL AND ERROR HERE!YOU WON'T DAMAGE YOUR CARTRIDGE,AND YOU WILL BECOME MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE!!

When you actually attempt to learn about what you are doing,in this sometimes frustrating hobby,you get a REALLY COOL by product--you SAVE MONEY!!YOU GET BETTER SOUND!!YOU ARE ACTUALLY HAPPY!!---well,maybe not as happy as those ZYX UNIV owners.