Darren:
I have owned one of these and had pretty good results--enough so that I decided to move up in the vinyl food chain. Based on what you've shared, let me suggest the following ideas.
You really should use an actual stylus force gauge vs. using any other method. Most people are okay with the Shure although I find a digital scale to be quite a bit more accurate.
There are a lot of folks that avoid anti-skate altogether. Once you get accurate stylus force set, you may want to try that as a reference point and see if it improves things. On my current table (Wilson Benesch) I am using only the very slightest amount of anti-skate. This provides the correct results when I use a setup record's tracking test to listen for proper anti-skate (the HiFi News record).
You can get a copy of the manual by joining the vinyl engine website at no cost. I believe you can set VTA (although I recall is wasn't easy or obvious).
Good luck!
I have owned one of these and had pretty good results--enough so that I decided to move up in the vinyl food chain. Based on what you've shared, let me suggest the following ideas.
You really should use an actual stylus force gauge vs. using any other method. Most people are okay with the Shure although I find a digital scale to be quite a bit more accurate.
There are a lot of folks that avoid anti-skate altogether. Once you get accurate stylus force set, you may want to try that as a reference point and see if it improves things. On my current table (Wilson Benesch) I am using only the very slightest amount of anti-skate. This provides the correct results when I use a setup record's tracking test to listen for proper anti-skate (the HiFi News record).
You can get a copy of the manual by joining the vinyl engine website at no cost. I believe you can set VTA (although I recall is wasn't easy or obvious).
Good luck!