What is best VTA for Clearaudio Maestro Cartridge?

I recently installed a ClearAudio Virtuoso in place of a Benz Ref3 on my turntable and when I first listened it sounded so bad I thought the cartridge might be faulty.

Then I realized that the VTA was quite a bit too high in the back and started lowering it down. I got to a spot where it sounded much better and then played around a bit more to find the spot where the bass came alive and locked in.

So probably the arm needs to be level or even slightly tipped down in the back for the cartrige to start shining as it should. I'd start about level and lower it in small amounts from there. When you hit that magic spot, you'll know it.

I was really surprised at how sensitive the Virtuoso is to VTA changes. Good Luck!

Have you set up your cartridge using a Mint?... also experiment with removing anti-skate. I have the same table and no anti-skate works best with my 10.5i/Benz Ebony LP

Dear Jbcello, there is no such thing as a best VTA for a given cartridge. As the record companies never actually agreed on a reference cutting angle, there is a wide variation of optimum VTAs on the LPs we play.

Many seasoned collectors of LPs from the late 1950ies to our days do set their VTA according to label.

An example: a fairly modern Opus3 LP will need - say - a VTA which is slightly "bent forward" (tonearm base higher than headshell). If you have mounted your cartridge in a 9" tonearm, you will have to lower the base now by approximately 6 mm (1/4 inch) to meet the correct VTA for an old Mercury SR (and have to take into account that your effective length is now altered and you would have to re-align the tonearm/cartridge as you no longer are on the arc you originally aligned to).

Of course - each stylus sits in its cantilever in a certain angle. But there is no universal fixed reference on the LP to meet, as we face a wide varity of cutting angles.

So - this alignment has to be done by ear only. Its a direct interaction with the cutting angle on your records.
It depends on your records - not on the cartridge.
To fine tune, watch out for voice focus and ambient acoustic details.

Cheers,
Daniel

Even under the best conditions and proper set up, If you have the wood version of the Maestro, you have a cart weight of 7g, which is not a good match for a unipiv. VPI JMW 9 or 10/10.5 arm. Also consider that it's of low/medium compliance, which doesn't help either. Most unipivots really benefit from higher compliance cart's in the range of greater than 15cu. Cart's in the 10+g weight would be better suited for the JMW.

If you have the 12g weight integral aluminum body version of the Maestro, you should be doing okay, and with proper alignment parameters, should sound fine.

The wood version does best with higher mass, fixed bearing arms like the sme or rega's.

Under proper alignment of VTA and VTF, azimuth..ect.. the Maestro is anything but bright, and noted for its warm, rich, yet exceptionally good tonal and transient qualities for a magnet. Like most cart's..It's proper VTA is when the stylus is exactly perpendicular to the record.

Thanks for all your input regarding this cartridge situation. When I first put the Clearaudio Maestro cartridge on the 10.5 arm I was not even able to adjust the arm to have the proper 2.5 gram tracking weight, so I put the metal weight that comes with the Maestro between the cartridge and tonearm. Now, I can adjust to the proper tracking weight, but the sound is still not very good. I was thinking of trying to put he extra weight on top of the tonearm instead of between the cartridge and the tonearm. maybe I should put an even heavier weight installed with the cartridge I have also not yet put the damping fluid in the tone arm well. I understand that this should improve things, but from what Kehut has written, this may not be enough to solve the problems. I may just have to get used to the fact that I need a different cartridge to match with the 10.5 arm. I do appreciate the information that the Maestro should not sound bright, but warm. That is why I brought the cartridge in the first place. I will continue to get a good sound out of the Maestro on this table and report back if I have had any luck. Thanks for your comments.