Thoughts on VTA......

Raul is right, of course, that time is precious and trying to obtain the perfect VTA for each LP side is a waste of it. But at the same time, VTA close to perfect always sounds better, and obviously so. I won't own an arm without VTA adjustment that is easy to perform and precisely repeatable. With any kind of built-in micrometer the setting is quick and simple: you just establish a baseline (say, for 140g LPs) and then remember how much you need to raise for 180g. You can easily tell the different weight LPs by their flexibility with a little practice. If you have a 160g, raise by half; a 120g, lower by half. It's not perfect but very, very close, and takes 2 or 3 seconds. If I forget to do it, I notice the difference in sound.

@wrm57 

And finally!

That was EXACTLY my point.

I have a lot of lightweight and heavyweight albums and although my hearing is not what it was I swear I can tell a difference between the varying weights of lps.

Unfortunately neither of my arms have on the fly VTA adjustment so it is not practical right now.

Still think I will look for an arm with VTA otf.

By ear, and since I prefer original pressings to reissues I don’t worry about the 180 and 200 gram pressings. I just pick a few average thickness albums that have very complex music on that.

Robelvick:

You wrote, "I keep adjusting my tonearm until the vinyl sounds as good/better than the Tidal stream." If Tidal's sound quality is your reference and you're adjusting VTA to match it, why not simply listen to most of your music streamed on Tidal?

@kacomess

What would I do with all my records then?  Plus, when a record sounds better than Tidal, of course I prefer to listen to that!

I get what you're saying though, but that is for another discussion.