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Dialing in my analog rig - Need help

I took a giant leap forward in sound quality this past weekend after deciding to check the setup that was provided by the dealer. Hell, I watched him and thought he covered everything. I was largely unhappy with the sound of my newly acquired rig. I am now only slightly unhappy as I discovered the following.

Being that it was a used Turntable/cartridge with no manual I downloaded the manual and performed the following. What I found was that my cartridge was way out of alignment according to the jig provided by VPI. That was a painless fix I than checked the levelness of the tonearm as it pertains to the platter. What I found was that the tonearm was set (or never set) all the way at the bottom of its adjustment. Doh! So I cranked that up to "level with platter". Was that how former owner had it set? Then there was the alignment of the head shell and of course that was off too. Now I was on to the tracking force which I defaulted to slightly more than 2 grams. The gauge I have is kind of crude compared to what the dealer was using but then the dealer seemed to miss a few items anyway...

As I mentioned earlier in this post, although being very unhappy it has gotten a LOT better. Many smiles have practiced over the last few days but one thing that still plagues my setup is the graininess or lack of smooth sounding highs. It's detailed as hell but vocals still have a "grain" to them. Nice staging and a goodly amount of air. I just seem to lack the smoothness I thought would be natural to vinyl.

Setup is;
VPI Scoutmaster, Dynavector XXV Mark II which feeds a PS Audio GCPH phono stage then direct to a Pass Labs amp. MBL 121 speakers. No preamp yet - still looking.

What's next?
128x128desalvo55
slowlearner
28 posts
 
Addition;

Twist the lead out wire ONLY if needed; if the cartrdige tracks inwards as described above with the wire in its "natural" relaxed state; no change or twisting before plugging in is needed. THEN apply anti-skating as described. The ctylus shoudl treack inwards ont eh surface VERY slowly, or at worst, hold still. Tracking inwards slowly (before it pops into the lead out groove) is the best average setting, for reasons I just described on AA.

Someone asked me to somment about VTA/SRA regarding this thread. VTA refers to the specific design of the cantilever and stylus mount. It can vary from 15 to 28 degrees. What you are concerned with always is SRA, which if all was made correctly, shoudl be "close" when the top of the cart is paralell to the record when viewed from the side. Plus or minus from there will have the ususal effects.

Peter Ledermann/Soundsmith
raquel
841 posts
 
Peter: Many thanks for your very helpful, expert instructions.
desalvo55's avatar
desalvo55 OP
205 posts
 
So not having a OTF-VTA adjustment, is it wise to think about upgrading to an arm that allows easy adjustment on the VTA?
sbank's avatar
sbank
2,038 posts
 
Absolutely! Not having adjustable VTA is a huge handicap in trying to get the best sound from your LPs. It's hard enough already. Why fight with one hand tied behind your back? Cheers,
Spencer
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
5,112 posts
 
I have always found that I can set up a cartridge better than the dealer. YOu can as well...just be patient. Ask questions if you need to - it takes time to do it properly. If you have VPI minifeet on your table - a huge upgrade is to get rid of them and use Bearpaws (Vermontaudio.com). The result is a very major upgrade
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