People who read me site know that I am a big admirer of older SME arms 3012/3009. Everything is great on them except they have no objective VTA scale. The new SME arm: M2-12/9 has a fixing bolt that allows dial-in and to maintaining VTA very accurately. The old, sonically more advanced 3012/3009 do not have …BUT there is way the overcome it. I use this method for year and never experienced any problem with VTA.

Buy a deck of plastic-made playing cards and stick in the SME gap between the base and the movable SME part. You will have VERY objective and very accurate tool to measure VTA. For instance the Shelter 901 needed 18 cards, the new Jubilee (non-broken-in) needs 20 cards. A half-card is very simple to do by putting a tape above one “Joker Card” and always count it as 1.5 card.

This methods might be used with any arms and in my view it is way more convenient then any tools with horizontal markers. BTW, do not be deceived with my use of 0.5 card. If you buy thin cards then it is not necessary as one card in or out does produce good-enough result. If you cartridge is so super VTA-sensitive that it overly dramatically changes sound with one card then look for another cartridge as your ZYX is too freakish…