Parallel? How do you set the VTA?

Parallel is a good place to start but it's were you finish that counts. The angle that the stylus is mounted on the cantilever will determine where the VTA will end up. With the carts I have had somewhere around 92 deg SRA is best.

Gluing styli to cantilevers is a tricky business. Very difficult to get the angle the same every time. Press fit styli are more consistent IME. The two carts I am using now are polar opposites as far as VTA settings go. One requires tail high and the other tail low to get the same SRA. In some cases using a shim under the front or back of the cartridge may be required if you run out of travel on your VTA adjustment.

Just remember that if you set your overhang before you finalized your SRA you should reset the overhang as a last step. Especially if you had to move the VTA allot to get proper SRA. This is because moving the VTA up from parallel will pull the stylus back towards the pivot a little. Same thing happens when you lower the tonearm from parallel. Unless you have an ET2 with a curved VTA adjustment. ;)

The only way I could see myself doing album-by-album VTA adjustment would require ownership of a rare Air Tangent arm that allowed for motorized VTA adjustment by remote control. That way, one could actually hear the change occurring on the fly. I don't see listening, getting up to do an adjustment, then sitting down to listen to be enjoyable, reliable, etc.

Zenblaster wrote, "I have to admit that after initial set-up I only change vta when something doesn't sound right."

Oddly enough, that's also why Paul and I adjust for each LP. It's not about measurements or theory. We adjust because if we don't, it doesn't sound right.

I could describe in excruciating detail but that would make it seem much harder than it is. As Raul kindly noted, the actual doing typically takes just a few seconds.

That's us... may not be you. As Jazdoc said, whatever works for your ears and priorities is best, so apologies to Actusreus if I pooh-poohed his preference for an objective baseline position. Each to his own.

"...if Dover can hear a change of 0.00635 degrees in the SRA, a change of a fraction of degree in the ambient temperature would result in a change in the sound that he could hear.

Very true. During Raul's visit (several years ago) we played music for several hours, then broke for dinner. The setup was well dialed in when we stopped, but on re-starting 45 minutes later the music sounded flat, dull, lifeless.

All electronics had been left powered up, but I realized that the cartridge must have cooled down from non-use (it was December and COLD outside). I tweaked VTF up a tiny bit.

BANG! Dynamics, pace and jump returned in spades, instantly. Raul asked what I'd done, the adjustment was so quick and tiny he couldn't see from the sofa. I demonstrated. All I'd done was nudge one of the O-rings on my arm stub inward by less than its own thickness, a VTF increase of much less than .01g. I went back and forth a couple times and the sound alternated accordingly.

Some setups are indeed that touchy.

04-11-13: Larryi
The only way I could see myself doing album-by-album VTA adjustment would require ownership of a rare Air Tangent arm that allowed for motorized VTA adjustment by remote control. That way, one could actually hear the change occurring on the fly.

Another way would be if you have a good pair of headphones that could be listened to while standing next to the turntable. That is what I have done.

Even so, my own feeling, like yours, is that life is too short to be doing this all the time, and it is rare that I find myself fiddling with the setting these days. I suspect, though, that the stylus profile of my cartridge (Grace F9E Ruby with Soundsmith's $250 retip) results in the VTA/SRA setting being somewhat less critical than it is with the cartridges that are used by many of the others who have posted.

Regards,
-- Al