Riggle Vtaf w/Rega P9 & RB1000. Good idea or not?

Ok, I just got off the phone with Pete Riggle who sells and designed the VTAF. Pete is a very generous guy who takes his time in explaining how the VTAF works and how it is installed. For the P9 he sells a version of the VTAF that will work with the three point mounting system of the RB1000 tone arm. With this version comes a brass piece on which the 3 point mounting system rests. (I saw a picture of it somewhere online about 3 weeks ago, but now I can't find it.) Now the regular VTAF for the RB250 increases the height of the tone arm a little less than a 1/4 of an inch. I believe Pete said .23 inches to be exact. Now, the VTAF version for the RB1000's 3 point mounting system increases the tone arm height another 1/8 of an inch on top of that, so the total arm height is increased almost 3/8 of an inch when using VTAF with the P9 or P7 arms. This is quite a bit of tone arm elevation, but Pete includes different size shims to put on the rear side of the cartridge to tilt the cartridge back to make up for the increased tone arm elevation. He says using the cartridge shim creates no negative effects on the sound and enables you to have the benefits in sound that the VTAF provides.

Has anyone out there used these cartridge shims with their Vtaf? Where there any negative results from doing this?
Thanks,

Personally, I will not own a Rega-based arm again, but if I did, one of Pete's VTA adjusters would be a MUST. Otherwise, I'd pass completely.

Hello 4yanx,
Please elaborate on your thoughts.
I am intriqued by the strength of your opinion.

Ok folks, I found the picture of the VTAF for the 3 point mounted Rega tonearm.
Here is the link.
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/vtaf/messages/15.html
As you can see this VTAF lifts the tonearm a bit higher, which is a concern of mine, but Pete insists that his shims take of the problem with no negative effect to sound or performance.

I would of course be correct, and of course no disrespect at all to Pete, and his products, that Pete's VTAF is in some ways a "Band-Aid" trying to cure-correct the deficiencies of certain, Less expensive Tonearms.

We have to be thankful that Pete did come along, and offer a modification to enable VTA on the fly for many less than state of the Art Tonearms which do in most cases nowadays incorporate adjustable VTA on the fly.

I wouldn't suspect the Brass to be a detriment to sound, but if there was some way I could avoid using any brass shims, I would personally prefer that option-solution, perhaps more from a cosmetic standpoint, more than anything. I'd personally rather have Cartridge squarely buttoned firmly to headshell, rather than having to cant Cartridge Body to achieve correct VTA-SRA.

An Arm that is "Ass High" IMO does look better than a Cartridge which is "Ass Low", and looks like it is almost scraping the LP when in play.

If the Platter-Platter Bearing could've in some way been shimmed in height, this would be one other way to correct additional Arm height, but also may incur other problems with Belt-Pulley height alignment as well?

A seperate Armboard could somehow perhaps be lowered, thus lowering Arm in the process?

One could perhaps slightly countersink the Bronze Bushing in Armboard?. One must remember, the face of Bushing must remain above Armboard surface in order to correctly work with the cooresponding Knurled Adjusting Nut. I think Pete touches on this in some wording I once read on his site, or another article of his? Mark