Clearaudio Concept Satisfy Carbon - Setup Help

Non-magnetic and non-inductive. Plastic? I think🤔

https://www.acplasticsinc.com/informationcenter/r/7-different-types-of-plastic-and-how-they-are-used

Shim won't do any good. All it will do is raise the head shell higher. This then requires raising the arm to get back to where the arm is parallel, and you are right back to where you are now.

The way cuing should work, when fully raised the stylus is at least 5 to usually more like 10 mm above a record. Mine looks to be about 7-8mm. When fully lowered onto a record the lift is only about 1mm below the arm tube. This is with the arm tube very nearly parallel.

This does not leave a lot of room for error. The arm can easily be set up a bit too low, creating an angle below parallel that is hard to see, but enough to lose those few mm of extra lift you are looking for.

I would do like I said, raise the arm a bit, listen, raise a bit more. If the arm is too low, VTA too low, the sound will be a bit bloated, fat or smooth. Raising the arm will tighten this up bringing things into focus with more detail. That is, if VTA is indeed too low. The only way to know for sure is to keep raising the arm, a little at a time, until at some point instead of gaining articulate detail you start to lose weight and the sound gets thin. This is how you know you went too far. Back off a tiny amount. At some point you find the right balance of weight and detail. 

My guess is more likely you are a few mm too low than the arm lift is defective. This is how you find out.

Thanks for the replies and advice! 

@millercarbon based on your comment for total lift ~1cm, this may be the problem.  I'd say I have approximately half that based on rough measurement.  That seems all the more reason why I was thinking the cue lever height should be adjustable.  Maybe it has slowly lost damping fluid over time causing it drop in peak height overall?? That might be something I need to investigate with Clearaudio directly. 

@imhififan Thanks for the shim advice, that might be a good solution if I can't get the cue lever setup resolved.  Just for my knowledge, I can easily understand the "Anti-magnetic" symbol, but what is the second symbol reference? 

I think the Ortofon 2M black is taller than the Nagaoka MP-500, add phono cartridge shim may help.

According to the manual there is no lift adjustment. However, also according to the manual, there should be no need for one! VTA is adjusted by raising/lowering the entire arm base including the lift. So whatever lift there is remains constant. 

From all the way down to all the way up you should have something like about 1cm of lift. Check and if that is not the case then your lift is off. If you do have about 1cm of lift then it is something else, most likely your VTA is adjusted way too low.

I would try raising it up a little at a time, listen to how it sounds, and as long as you hear improvement continue raising. This is the correct way to do it anyway, VTA should always be set by ear. Any advice about parallel arm tube or cartridge or whatever is merely intended as a first approximation. Fine tuning is always done by ear.