Best tonearm position for VTA?

Speedy, I didn't take it that way, and you're post are extremely helpful to me. So please don't stop on my account. I just felt I needed to explain what I was about. It's pretty hard for me sometimes to get my thoughts across in written posts. (Wow, physical, vocal and facial expressions are really important!) Part of the reason I was looking for some method to use is that all of my analog front end is new to me, all of it coming in the last 6 to 9 months. I probably broke that rule about not changing too many things at once, but I gotta feed the beast.

I don't remember having this much problem with my old MMF 7, but then I only had the one cartridge for it. I had it dialed in pretty well and then pulled the arm to upgrade the wires and clips. Since I knew the position I could just return the arm there and be done. Right now it's not so easy cuz, as you say, I'm still learning and getting to know my stuff. I image if it had taken futzing with more than 4 or 5 cards I would have gotten frustrated and just done the gross movement thing. I think that's how I got messed up with the 103 in the first place. I'll get there before long.

Nsgarsh--I'll try to tone down my humor,now that I've copped a look at your "STUNNING" set-up!!Wouldn't want you to heave chunks of ungranulated Maxwell House at those gorgeous and "CLASSIC" Martin Logan panels!!

I have been messin with VTA adjustments for 21 years and I still mess around with it.
If your arm is an Allen set screw type, then the playing cards are "BRILLANT" you always need a reference to make baby steps..

I always thought the rule of thumb was designers of Tonearms and cartridge manufactures made their products to work together. when the vta is set properly the cartridge body is close to parallel to the record surface. So if you are way up or down, you are way off?

Presently my Shelter sounds best to me a little down in the back. This however is not as important to the sound for the Shelter anyway, as VTF.

Don't get me wrong both are important but for the Shelter you have to have the vtf right first, and remember the vtf changes with vta adjustments.


Peace
Ron

So I was bock over on VA last night and found a post that suggested weighing records and then making slight VTA adjustements based on the weight. I assume that the theory is that since the records are approximately the same surface area the weight differences must be due to the thickness differences. I haven't tried this but it seems to me that this is a crap shoot because it really depends on the cutting angle when the record was made. Maybe it will work sometime, and maybe even most of the time. The poster who proposed this was also careful to say that you still have to make the final evaluation by ear. What the poster was offering was a way to guestimate the VTA adjustment when one is experiementing with a record who's VTA setting has not been previously found. I'm not sure I'm ready to do the VTA adjustment for each record while fumbling with my playing cards. Maybe I'll try settings with a few normal weight records and then a few heavy weight records and just settle on a happy medium.

Dan, You are correct the heavy lp's are thicker and do change your vta. How this affects the sound depends on how fussy your cartridge is for vta.

Good Idea, try a few of both to see what happens.
I personally set mine for the normal weight lp's. The vast majority of my lp's are like 120 gram. I do however notice on some 180/200 gram lp's that I need to come up a little, to get that upper detail.

The thing that really messes with your setup is the Seasonal weather changes. You may find that from time to time you will need to adjust your rig.