Joe,
A reasonable VTA reference point on a ZYX can be eyeballed as follows:
- View the cartridge from the side
- Spot the slight ridge in the acrylic that runs the full length of the body, 1-2mm above the bottom of the cartridge
- That ridge should be level with the record surface
Of course you need to have dialed in VTF too, since that affects VTA.
Eventually you can fine tune VTA by ear, to whatever degree of craziness you prefer. You'll probably want 50-100 hours on it before bothering though. Sonic changes due to break-in may swamp most VTA-related effects.
BTW, try running the de-mag sweeps on the Cardas record. It made a substantial improvement on a silver coiled ZYX I tested recently. OTOH it has little effect on my copper coiled one, so YMMV. It can't hurt though.
BTW #2, how do you use the HFN record for dialing in a cartridge? I find it about 95% useless for that purpose.
To heck with all this. Play more music!
A reasonable VTA reference point on a ZYX can be eyeballed as follows:
- View the cartridge from the side
- Spot the slight ridge in the acrylic that runs the full length of the body, 1-2mm above the bottom of the cartridge
- That ridge should be level with the record surface
Of course you need to have dialed in VTF too, since that affects VTA.
Eventually you can fine tune VTA by ear, to whatever degree of craziness you prefer. You'll probably want 50-100 hours on it before bothering though. Sonic changes due to break-in may swamp most VTA-related effects.
BTW, try running the de-mag sweeps on the Cardas record. It made a substantial improvement on a silver coiled ZYX I tested recently. OTOH it has little effect on my copper coiled one, so YMMV. It can't hurt though.
BTW #2, how do you use the HFN record for dialing in a cartridge? I find it about 95% useless for that purpose.
To heck with all this. Play more music!
