The obsession, the trees. The music, the forest.

I am very new to analog,so I have trouble with all these adjustments. As time goes by I seem to be listening more and tweeking less.

Tim

I am undoubtedly one of the people who you have seen advocating finding the correct VTA. Believe it or not, this is not an obsession with me in practice. What my advocacy actually represents is a tweak to all of those unabashed "vinyl rules" advocates who can't be bothered with doing what is necessary to make it rule (and they abound and quite often are new to vinyl). If you can't be bothered with setting the proper VTA for each disc you have probably greatly diminished its ability to compete with a comparable digital product. Agruing about CD vs Vinyl is in MHO what "gearheads" do, and is, for the most part, unproductive and has nothing to do with listening to music, only the sounds of your system. Personally I choose the music/performance that I want to hear first and then put the record/disc on the proper devise to transcribe/decode it. I agree, it not vinyl or digital that rules, its music.

Jm88439,
It is okay for some of us, especially beginners to be obsessive about azimuth and vta at first. Once they are set right, we can then enjoy the music w/o worrying azimuth and vta and what not. Yes, enjoying the music is the goal, not listening to equipments. But I notice the "uptight", the tweakers are the kind of people who help me a lot in this art of music appreciation. So I like them very much too.

I would suppose that after some experience making those frequent adjustments, making them becomes second nature resulting in minimal detraction from musical enjoyment.

"But I notice the "uptight", the tweakers are the kind of people who help me a lot in this art of music appreciation. So I like them very much too."

I like that.

I'm pretty new and just trying to get my rig set up to the best compromise of settings for all my vinyls, from thin old ones to my 200g pressings. Once I find the best compromise--the settings that seem to do well with anything I throw on the platter--then I'll stop, and enjoy the music. Until then, I toy around and tweak and listen to the changes.

Since I don't have a dealer that I can call to come set everything up for me, I'm kind of forced to learn how to do it all myself. I find cartridge alignment the trickiest, but I'm learning alot and it's a great skill to have. Once I find the right balance, I can't wait to leave it all alone and just listen. I'll simply check on the setup periodically as the seasons change.