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In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: Vinyl Ceremonies: Repeatable VTA
Post Subject: Problem Solved (Case Closed)Posted by Paul S on: 12/26/2009
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I was just cruising the site, mining it for information (as I often do), when I ran across this "orphaned" thread with the "dangling" posts at the end. I suppose it's time to update this thread and in so doing close the book on it.
Since I wrote the earlier posts in this thread I have found a very practical solution for the "VTA problem" that prompted this thread. The solution is posted in another thread, "At Last, Repeatable VTA". I guess I should have posted the solution in this thead, but by the time I posted the newer thread, I had forgotten about this older thread!
To make it short and sweet, correct, repeatable VTA is the Bomb! Other issues remain once VTA is correct, but the benefits are huge, and very certainly it is one of the top cost/benefit tweaks, if not THE top c/b tweak an analog hacker can easily do. At the very least, finding correct VTA anew by ear with every record is no longer necessary, so it's absolutely a BIG time saver.
I know that some people don't care about this, or perhaps they just refuse to deal with it. When people say they just leave their arms set at one height all the time, I wonder which cartridges/styluses they are using, or what else they are using, for that matter, or how they are listening, that they do not hear or appreciate the difference that correct VTA makes. So far, records in my own modest collection vary from .03" to .0875" in thickness. In my system, .003" arm height differences are plainly audible, once other things are dialed in. Although this small increment rarely makes the difference between "good" and "bad", it might well be the difference between "boring" and "interesting".
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site