Within the general recommendations of the manufacturer, I use my ears. My preferred settings are usually on the upper part of the recommended range. Maybe its just inadequate hearing on my part, but I've never felt the need to have an expensive VTF guage.
- ...
- 36 posts total
Tbg, for me the answer depends on WHY one needs a gauge that is more accurate than the Shure or others. I'm a believer that the gauge only gets you into the ballpark because the optimal VTF setting must be set by ear and must be determined through iterative adjustment and listening as VTA is dialed in because the two settings interact. I've always followed Lloyd Walker's recommended procedure for fine tuning turntable setup: www.walkeraudio.com/fine_tuning_your_turntable.htm So for me, greater accuracy than the Shure provides is irrelevant except in one situation: If one has multiple arm wands and needs to easily move from one to another, being able to re-establish quickly, easily and with great accuracy a predetermined optimum tracking force makes sense, and there are gauges out there that are more repeatable with precision than the Shuure. But in my opinion, that pre-determined optimum tracking force will have been determined in an earlier "dialing in by ear" process. In this case, the important factor is the gauge's repeatability of measurement (i.e., the ability to get precisely the same result over multiple measurements), not its absolute accuracy of measurement. . |
I have the Shure, an older Weathers ,an older Gerrard and a newer Audioforce digital. All are accurate. I find the Shure to be the most time consuming of them all, but it does the job. I think the Gerrard SPG3 English made guage is very accurate and fairly easy to use..but its an older design and not readily avail anymore of course as is the Weathers. The Audioforce digital is dead accurate and so very easy to use. Cool digital lcd read out and can be found at Audioparts usually via auction( as I got mine) for under $170. |
- 36 posts total