Arm Heighth on VPI Classic


HELP! Have a Classic 3 and just bought a 200gram lp; so, I'm assuming that I need to adjust arm height for the thicker lp. Classic 3 manual says to make sure to loosen BOTH set screws before making adjustment. For the life of me, I can only find the one black knob on the tower. Where's the second one? Do I turn the tower clockwise to raise the arm and how much turning should I plan on?
rockyboy
I run my classic 1 with the tonearm slightly tail down as well. Only your ears can tell
The reason tail down became a popular way to set up an arm was that moving coil cartridges nearly always had a high frequency lift to them that tail down reduced. We all should use our ears to determine the setup of our rigs...but if you want to properly set up the arm Fremmer makes an excellent case for tail up. Newly designed high end moving coils don't exhibit that high frequency lift. I recommend reading Fremmers article, which is also validated by The Absolute Sound.
Don't adjust the arm height to compensate for the difference in album thickness. It's not practical and can cause more issues down the road.
Hi Dreadhead,

Can you let me know what you mean by "more issues down the road"? I always adjust the arm height for albums with different thicknesses. Will my adjustments have adverse consequences over the long run? I have not really given it a thought before reading this thread.

I have found it can take almost two full knob rotations to get the sound I like when going from a modern 180g record to one of my thin 80's LPs. I make the major adjustment before cuing up the album - then I do fine adjustments to the point where I hear good balance, clarity and (in most cases) hear reverb in the singer's voice. Since I do it all the time it only takes a few seconds to pretty much zero in on the sound I want.

If I leave the arm adjusted for 180g LPs the thin LPs sound really dull - no depth at all. By the way, I usually end up with a tail-up position.