dangcaonguyen So the VTA cannot be adjusted by the end user?The VTA can be adjusted by raising or lowering the pickup arm, but the optimum VTA is determined by the phono cartridge manufacturer and - to an extent - the VTA of the actual cutting stylus. |
melm Strictly speaking the VTA is the angle made by the stylus tip to the cantilever attachment to the cartridge. It is a bit different than the angle of the cantilever itself.That's a fine distinction but it's absolutely correct. Conical styli have no rake (and no SRA) and the only thing then to align is the VTA at around 20 degrees.Actually, conical styli are almost immune to VTA alignment, so anywhere even close to 20 degrees will be more than fine. (The spec becomes increasingly critical as the stylus shape narrows to elliptical to hyperelliptical to microline ...) That's why some phono cartridges with spherical styli remain so popular - they're easy to set up. But overhang is as critical with spherical styli as any other stylus shape. |
mijostyn ... raise or lower the tonearm until the arm is perfectly parallel to the record. This will give you both the correct VTA and SRA.That approach should get you close to proper VTA. Whether the result is "correct" hinges on your tolerance for error, which varies among audiophiles. For many - myself included - the parallel pickup arm is just a starting point. |
dangcaonguyen If I adjusted the VTA by 1 degree, will the SRA change with the same 1 degree?It will be very, very, very close, but it’s not exactly a 1:1 relationship. That’s because VTA is the angle between the surface of the record and that of the stylus tip in the groove and a line drawn through the cantilever to its pivot point. SRA is that the vertical center line of the stylus contact patches make with the groove ridges. The groundbreaking and still-definitive work on this was by Risch & Meier. See the March, ’81 issue of Audio magazine. It is online here. The illustrations will make this more clear. |
petg60 1mm change in VTA will affect 0,19 degrees of SRA, so no it will be less than 1 degree.VTA is measured in degrees, not millimeters. VTA is an angle, not a distance. But even if you intend to say that a 1mm change in pickup arm height results in a .19 degree change in SRA, you can’t state that as an absolute. The correlation between change in arm height and change in VTA/SRA is contingent on the length of the pickup arm. That’s one of the advantages of a longer pickup arm. In any event, I’d like to see the math that supports your claim. |
millercarbon VTA generally refers to the angle of the tone arm, although technically it is the angle of the cantilever.Nope, you’re wrong again. Let @melm explain: ... VTA is the angle made by the stylus tip to the cantilever attachment to the cartridge. It is a bit different than the angle of the cantilever itself.Millercarbon your claim here is also false: if you raise the arm to increase VTA by 1 degree then yes SRA will also change by 1 degree.To be fair to you, it will be very, very close to a 1 degree change. But it won’t be exactly 1 degree and that you don’t understand that shows you’re as confused now as when you stated earlier that VTA and SRA are the same thing. Hey millercarbon, don’t you think it’s time you get your facts straight about LP geometry? I made it easy for you by linking to the definitive work on VTA/SRA by Risch & Meier published in Audio magazine. And when you’re done with that, please do some research on HTA. It’s one of the most critical aspects of phono cartridge alignment, yet it seems to have completely escaped your attention. |
