If it sounds 'great', everything is ok?

So far, many thanks to all of you for your time and effort in answering to my question. Which is acutally a question from a friend living 200 miles south. I have some knowledge regarding this topic (and 4 different tt's in operation) but I know you might have even more (knowledge). So, I am glad you are supporting me.

Special thanks to

@vonhelmholtz Since you are happy with what you have, why not ask if incorrectly setup tonearm/cartridge will damage a record?

@mulveling (....) if is sounds really good, it probably isn’t too far off the mark on anything. Maaaybe VTF and anti-skate can get into "you shouldn’t do that" territory without being overtly audibly bad. But VTF is super easy to check & re-check, and anti-skate should be applied sparingly. 

You might add some conditions, too:

• Does it remain good across the whole record surface, especially inner grooves?
• Does it retain clean playback at loud SPL (exposing feedback and rumble issues), assuming the owner chooses to enjoy those levels? Boy has that one bit me lately lol.

and @elliottbnewcombjr

As to the main raison of my friend's question. It appears that the tracking force he has applied is around 1gr higher than recommended in the user guide of the Ortofon MM Black. However, he measured VTF with a digital scale. And this not a good idea as his tt is a Cleraudio with magnetic tone arm.

Despite the 2.9gr the digital scale is showing, he says the sound quality is 'super' to his ears. I assume that the 2.9gr is an incorrect reading. I will recommend to use a basic analog scale ("seesaw" model) and to compare this value with the other one given by the digital scale.

If VTF is really way too high, vonhelmholtz's comment comes into play

If the sound quality is 'super' to my friends ears, is it possible that the VTF is far away from being correctly set? --> coming back to my initial question.

Best regards, eagledriver

@elliottbnewcombjr 

Thanks a lot for your assessement and advise. It will be helpful to my friend, as well as other comments. I agree that 71% more VTC as recommended by Ortofon appears to be a bit too much (Wear and tear on the cartridge and stylus). 

My friend needs to invest some quiet time to get the right things done, if he does not want to replace the cartridge after a few month.

To all who contributed in a friendly and helpful manner, I say thanks a million for your support. Much appreciated!

BDW

I'm too old to be a troll,

but not too old to rock and roll 😎

Cheers, eagledriver

@elliottbnewcombjr 

My friend lives in Switzerland. Detour ahead 😃

@elliottbnewcombjr

Thank you for all these detailed information. We are talking about the Verify arm. And yes, the alignment template is available.

There is one BIG difference between the anti skating screw/knob of the Clearaudio Concept and the ROWEN TT1: The screw on the latter has no zero marker. So, it will be necessary to figure zero anti skate first in order to be able to set VTF correctly.

I will provide an update as soon as I have received feedback from my friend.

@elliottbnewcombjr 

'Why did you mention Rowen TT1? Is it a variation of Clearaudio? Made for them by Clearaudio?'

Sorry for the confusion..

https://www.rowen.ch/en/index.php

ROWEN is a Swiss Company who brought his 'own' tt to the market. Basically, it is a Clearaudio Concept. But marketed as the ROWEN TT1. The only visible difference is the 'R' on the front of the tt.

ROWEN declares that they let Clearaudio develop and build the ROWEN TT1 according to ROWEN's ideas. ROWEN's contribution is the developpment of another frame and motor control system and has slightly modified the tone arm.

However, no further (technical) details are known or disclosed.