VPI Classic and ZYX Airy 3 X SB...good match?

I don't understand what you are trying to say.

Lets say you decide not to use AS and then you try to scope how the cartridge is tracking and you find out there is some distortion on one chanell.
Now you increase your AS and now both chanell are properly tracking.
Why would you say that by doing this the pick up should sound worse and have a shorter life?

If there's mistracking in the R channel on REAL records then of course you should add some A/S. I never said to accept mistracking.

But the HFN record is not a real record. To track it cleanly requires more VTF and A/S than you need for real records. Playing real records with excessive VTF and A/S dulls the sound and softens a suspension faster.

Scope if you must, but use real records. Test records are too different to provide meaningful results. I own several, including the HFN record, and none of them is of any use for adjusting VTF or A/S to play real music.

The HFN record is a test record and as far as my understanding is concerned it is equally recorded on both sides of the groove.
Which means that you will have both channell perfeclty tracking only if the cantilever is perfectly laid and force-balanced in the groove.

What you are saying is interesting and all in all you set using the finest instrument you have i.e. your ear!!!

I don't see though how scoping a real record would be of any help in terms of A/S, VTA, VTF, Azimuth regulation.

One thing that concerns me about test records, is whether they can be relied upon? What if on test tracks, groove damage is eventually created? Then, is it an accurate means to judge?

Akin to the old saying (or something like it) "If a Bear farts in the Woods, and no one hears it, did it happen"?

Meaning, if you're not hearing distortion on the records you play, is one then trying to fix something that isn't broken?

I know many of us don't have the discerning ear that our friend Doug D. possesses, so we perhaps need the aid of certain tools to assist us.

I reckon in this case, it is not about the journey, and how you get there, but that you do get there some way, and somehow, to extracting the best sound your vinyl rig has to offer. Mark

Hi Mark,

I agree with you in a certain way.
Fine tune has to be done by listening, but certain things need to rely on precise measurements to maximaze the result.

An example:

How would you set the azimuth of your cart?

You first regulate it with a mirror and then, you can either trying to audition few known recordings or you can do it with a DMM and a special track.
While the first is more subjected to personal preference and can lead to a non-optimum result (i.e. you might prefere the sound on that vinyl a certain way and second you do not know how the recording was done) the other is more scientifical way.

I think same thing applies to AS regulation and VTF.

Sometime distortion, limited distortion, might be perceived as something "different".
There are interest studies in this sense.

IMHO It is very important to find scientific and especially repeatable measurements that can easily give you reading of distortion and other parameters.

It is the first time I am trying to set the cart as precise as possible, maybe because this is my first very high end cartridge.
The VPI tonearm lets me regulate the azimuth easily VTF and all the other parameters and that makes things easier.