Stylus Rake Angle

Doug Deacon (as always) offers great advice.

I would allow that some people are more comfortable with measurements, and if that makes you happy and improves your listening experience; then by all means go for it. Please note the the paper cited by Mikey indicates that the optimal SRA lies within a range of ~4 degrees with 92 degrees representating the approximate mid point of the range.

Since the cartridge in question is my stereo reference, I'd add my agreement that the cantilever/tip are difficult to visualize and that effort spent trying to achieve a precise 92 degree SRA is likely futile. You can achieve great results with this cartridge by dialing it in by ear. On my Telos tonearm, the tail of the arm is up a bit from horizonatal and the VTF is best at 1.93-1.94 gm. Attention to azimuth will yield great sonic benefits.

I find it useful to keep a log while dialing in a cartridge setup, changing only one parameter at a time. Also remember that you will need to go past 'optimal' (i.e. until the sound degrades) to confirm best set up.

I try and find the best compromise for VTA/SRA and do not adjust with every record. I also recheck my set up at the end of each month.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, Jazdoc.

Ever since Jon Risch posted his seminal SRA article on Vinyl Asylum, people have over-interpreted 92 degrees +/- 2 as "SRA must be 92 degrees exactly and perfectly". People with a fondness for measurements and exactitude are vulnerable to this distraction. I should know, I used to do it myself. ;-)

Some cartridges do indeed have difficult-to-see styli. My highly myopic eyeballs can spot some contact edges with almost no magnification (e.g., ZYX). OTOH, I once wasted 45 mins trying to spot the contact edges on an Ortofon A90... to no avail. Then I came to my senses, roughly levelled the arm and adjusted by listening. In two minutes I had SRA nailed. From there, readjusting for different LPs (also by listening) took less than a minute. This was an unfamiliar cartridge on an unfamiliar tonearm (Kuzma Air Line) in someone else's system. In my own system I could have done it even quicker.

Good tip about keeping a setup log. That satisfies the need for perfection while actually being useful, lol.

Additionally, once I find the optimal arm height for any particular LP, I note it on a sticky note stuck to the inner sleeve. Makes tweaking for replays quick and easy.

Here's a twist. As Dougdeacon so well reminds us, each record is different and styli shapes differ, so it is somewhat futile to fixate on the 92 degrees. However, out of curiosity, I did check to see how close my SRA is to 92 deg. when my arm is horizontal. Very close. So with that for comfort and as a starting point, I adjusted further by listening to a variety of LPs until I found the setting I liked. For me it is a compromise because the VTA is difficult to set with my arm, so I don't do it for each record.

Doug explained to me once what it is that should be listened for. It is not a tonal balance between highs and lows as I had thought, but rather it is a timing issue involving the initial transient, the sustain and the decay. The relationship of each of these for a plucked note on a mandolin or harpsichord should sound natural and have the correct timing.

Rather than corrupting Doug's description any further, perhaps he could once again explain exactly what to listen for when adjusting SRA.

In most of cases the stylus bay should be parallel to the surface of record. updowns should be very slight.

Although the setting the arm at the horizontal position by eye works for most arm/cartridge combos, isn't the advantage of using the microscope to set SRA come down to being able to set a good ballbark VTA for those cartridges that have more unusual cantilever/stylii angles or sylii with unusual sensitivity to SRA (micro line, shibata etc.)?

-Karl