When I had my first turntable which was a Dual 1214 you basically mounted the cartridge.( If I remember it had a rotating clamp interface). You set the crude stylus force adjustment and you started to listen to records. The year was probably 1972 and I was just a young teenager and I do not recall VTA, SRA, azimuth, anti-skating, etc. Done
In 1976 and I purchased my Thorens TD165 which I still have (upgraded now) and I was introduced to anti-skating with the little swinging Thorens weight. Still somewhat of a mystery but I set up the cartridge to the Thorens headshell gauge set the tracking force, the anti-skating per the manual and started listening to records. Done
Flash forward to current day and the discussions on turntable setup are infinite and I believe that some of this adjusting setup per every record, digital microscopes for set up, oscilloscopes, volt meters, special software, etc has taken out the enjoyment of listening to vinyl.
The Holy Grail that people are searching for is lost within the manufacturing process variation of all the components in the listening chain. IMHO.
Buy a decent turntable with a decent cartridge, set it up to the manufactures recommendations, clean your records (cannot stress this enough) and enjoy the music.
In 1976 and I purchased my Thorens TD165 which I still have (upgraded now) and I was introduced to anti-skating with the little swinging Thorens weight. Still somewhat of a mystery but I set up the cartridge to the Thorens headshell gauge set the tracking force, the anti-skating per the manual and started listening to records. Done
Flash forward to current day and the discussions on turntable setup are infinite and I believe that some of this adjusting setup per every record, digital microscopes for set up, oscilloscopes, volt meters, special software, etc has taken out the enjoyment of listening to vinyl.
The Holy Grail that people are searching for is lost within the manufacturing process variation of all the components in the listening chain. IMHO.
Buy a decent turntable with a decent cartridge, set it up to the manufactures recommendations, clean your records (cannot stress this enough) and enjoy the music.