Parallel? How do you set the VTA?

Thanks Stringreen. I forgot to mention the deck of playing cards does not work very well on a tapered arm. On a non-tapered arm it gets you very close and you can adjust by ear after that. I think parallel is a good place to start.

Well I actually do own a small bubble level that is designed for photography. However, I don't use it much anymore, as it helped me realize that my eyeballing is good enough for VTA. That must be one plus from all of the mechanical work I've done over the last few decades. I still use a digital scale, but my blinded touch usually puts me within 0.2-0.3 grams of the target VTF. Once I was as close as 0.04 grams just by touch. Certainly not good enough to rely on to set VTF, but it does impress the ladies. LOL!

I use a tiny level that comes with Van den Hull cartridges. I then added a few more lines with a magic marker so I can have finer measurements. I place the level on the headshell to check VTA and azimuth. Does the trick.

Don't use the armwand, use the headshell to determine level. Level is just the starting point, adjust by ear.

Brf,

The headshell is parallel to the armwand on the Classic tonearm, which is not tapered. I found the headshell to be too small to accurately determine whether it's parallel to the record surface. Plus, it has two mounting screws sticking out, which makes it even more difficult to read its position. I guess a tiny level could be used, but I've never seen a level small enough available commercially that would fit on top of the headshell behind the screws.

Also, I realize ultimately the setting should be done by ear, but the Delos was designed to sound best with the tonearm parallel to the record surface as that's when the coils are apparently aligned optimally. So I would very much like to be able to tell objectively whether the wand is parallel, and take it from there.

Jperry,

How does the stack of cards method work? It's the first time I've heard of it. Thanks.