KD 500 w/ Grace 707 arm. Stylus type.


No way I'm trying to play with VTA or Azmth. So does that leave out shibata, microline etc. etc cartridges? Are conical or elliptical styli the best for this combo? Thanks in advance for all your replies.
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Showing 2 responses by lewm

 If I had to dial-in VTA and azimuth for every LP that I want to play, I would not be into vinyl at all. True, there are some anal individuals who feel compelled to do fiddly  things like that. I don’t. And I have wonderful sound from vinyl using Shibata, OCL, micro ridge, you name it styli. Most of my many tonearms do provide for VTA on the fly. But I really never take advantage of that so-called feature. I set VTA for an average LP in a static state, after setting the VTF and all the other alignment parameters. Then I forget about it.  Life is short. Enjoy your system. 
Guys, the tonearm the OP is going to use does not afford azimuth adjustment. That is what he is talking about. So he therefore believes he should select a stylus shape that is relatively tolerant of inaccurate azimuth adjustment. He could do two things: he could shim the cartridge and adjust azimuth in that Way. Which is a royal pain in the a-- .Or, he is talking about sticking to cartridges with elliptical or conical styli, which are relatively tolerant of azimuth.

My opinion is that the OP should not worry about this issue at all. He should buy a cartridge that he wants to buy, regardless of the stylus shape. Listening will be the final test of whether azimuth adjustment is crucial or not.

The OP is not saying that he does not want to drive the car.