Do You Have a Favorite Disk to Set VTA/SRA?

Dougdeacon, do you have 7" records? They have also different thickness. For what it's worth even with on-flight VTA it's insane and sick and not normal. Try to promote your strategy to Rega owners LOL!

Adjustment is a personal preference like everything else in this business. SOme like the plug and play systems and others invest time and money for SOTA on everything. Its crazy only if you don't value it. I will admit however, the rega arms do make it a challenge (at least the older ones)
I do not adjust every one but do adjust based on my knowledge of my collection and general thickness of the record. If it is a new record or one i dont remember, i will adjust to see if i can bring out any more detail. I listen for the clarity of the lows (does it get muddy or sharper), are the notes on a piano clear and crisp versus soft. Those are my typical things i do. I am not a great technical listener, but when i adjust, i know when it gets better to me.

Czarivey,

Whether I have 7" records or a Rega arm is irrelevant. What matters is what the OP has, and he hasn't told us yet.

Why do you accuse me of "promoting my strategy"? Read my post again. I didn't promote ANY strategy. The only thing I "promoted" was a search for more information about the OP's system and preferences.

You, on the other hand, are promoting a strategy without regard for anyone else's system or preferences. As Oilmanjo noted, this adjustment is a matter of personal preference.

You call other approaches "spiritual masterbation" and "sick and not normal". Why employ such pointlessly insulting language? Believe it or not, you do not possess all the answers.

Doug

P.S. I've owned several Rega and Rega knockoff arms (Origin Live). There are aftermarket devices (Riggle, Teres) which make it easy to adjust arm height, on the fly if one wishes. You apparently don't know quite as much as you believe.

Doug,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I tried to make my inquiry very specific. I didn't think that the response depended upon specific equipment or listening preferences. I simply wanted to know if particular recordings have been particularly helpful to others in this difficult (for me) adjustment.

Nonetheless I use a Shelter 501 II with a Soundsmith OC retip on a VPI JMW 12" arm. When listening to vinyl, I listen primarily to classical. But there have been suggestions that some non-classical recordings work better for this purpose.

I used to use the Ave Maria track from The Mission- choral, voices are added, too high and they thin out, too low and they lose their location.
I used to actively change arm height on, if not a record by record basis, then at least by rough gradients of 'thick,' 'normal' and 'thin.' (Easy enough to do on the fly with my arm). But, I've found that some cartridges seem to be far more sensitive to VTA. Right now, my cartridge is a little more agnostic (as was its predecessor) so I'm pretty much set and forget.
I still want a remote controlled arm height adjustment though. (Not laziness, it's hard to tune, run back to the sweet spot, tune, etc).
Back to our original program. :)