VTF and VTA- Constant or not?

Dan,

Since record company cutting head VTA's are known to have varied from a low of around 15 degrees to 20 or even 22 degrees, Dertonarm's suggested range seems reasonable.

I haven't gone that far myself, but I can confirm that there is great consistency within each record label, especially with records from the same plant.

Our first data point for every LP, recorded when it's cleaned, is the LP's weight in grams (a proxy for thickness). The LP's never been played by me so choosing an initial arm height might be a guess, except that I probably have a similar weight LP on the same label somewhere (I also have a list like Dertonarm's, though self generated and a bit half-assed). It's quick and easy to find a similar LP and calculate a starting arm height, adjusting as necessary if the new one is heavier or lighter.

This usually (90%) gets us VERY close to the optimal height for the new LP on the first spin. A little more record keeping, a lot more time saved.

Agree not all carts soften, it depends on the elastomers of course. Consult your favorite chemical scientist for details. ;-)

Doug

Dan, yes - horizontal level and from that point up to 14 mm down. With a 10" tonearm. Its slightly less with a 9" and a bit more (which isn'T possible with all cartridges/12" tonearms, since under certain conditions (small cartridge body, little height of cartridge body) the armtube touches the platter when you go that far down.
I mentioned this as a general "guideline" only.
Everyone will find his/her own "chart".
VTA on the fly makes this nor really a joy to find out, but eases things considerably. The change in effective length due to change of tonearm height is neglected here (never thought I would use the phrase ever regarding tonearm geometry ...) - it is too small to be corrected by hand at all. Much more important to the sound performance is to have the VTA groove-compliant.
And yes - some suspension do give in with age - some never.
My 28 year old FR-7fsp. still works with the very same VTF as in 1982. Fitted with its 5th stylus now, but same compliance. 80+ µm trackability with its lower limit optimum VTF set.
Certainly not the rule but maybe one of the very few exceptions in high-end cartridge history.
Cheers,
D.

When our current UNIverse was new it needed ~1.70g. Today (2+ years later) it plays optimally (better in fact) at ~1.20g. That is not a typo.

Doug!!! 1.2gm for the Universe?
I seem to remember a post of yours saying anyone brave enough to go below 1.7gm is on his own?

OK...I'm going to adjust my DaVinci/Universe to negative VTA and 1.5gm to see if I agree?

Regards
Henry

Henry,

Most people believe I'm very much on my own. Why disappoint them? ;-)

Do remember that our cartridge reached this stage in small steps. We did not wake up one morning and ask, "What would happen if we dropped VTF from 1.70 to 1.20?".

Of course there's no reason to believe 1.50g or any other randomly selected number will be optimal. That's neither science nor craft nor even art, its guessing.

IME with 10-12 UNIverses, each one's VTF is best adjusted using the protocol I've posted before: find its mistracking point on very dynamic passages, work very slightly upwards from there by listening.

Have fun!
Doug

BTW, if you can play a UNIverse (or any cartridge) with "negative VTA", we'd all like to see photos. ;-)

Every other record I've purchased since I got into analog heavily about half a year ago has been visibly warped. (I returned first few but soon gave up since it seems to be the norm, not the exception, sadly. At least for jazz records. But that's a topic for another thread already discussed here.) Doubtless, warpage affects VTA/SRA setting even for the same record making any valid comparison very difficult and probably not very meaningful. So unless all of your records are perfectly flat, I'd question the benefit of recording settings for every LP and advocate for a setting that seems to work for most records, just to retain my sanity. But then again, I have neither Doug's or Paul's ears, nor their equipment, so I can only speak for myself.