Someone earlier mentioned the Victor UA 7045 and UA 7082 tonearms with the adjustable VTA. It also has adjustable anti skating with a simple twist of a knob on the top and can be adjusted on the fly.
To set the VTA there is a large knurled lock ring that has a nicely machined collet underneath. Simply loosen the knurled ring after setting the fine VTA adjustment ring to the zero mark and slide the tonearm up or down to get the headshell dead level. Now tighten the knurled ring and use the fine adjust ring to raise or lower the tonearm + or - 3 mm. The fine adjust knurled ring is clearly calibrated with widely spaced markings for every 0.5 mm increment. Easy to estimate 0.1 mm changes or less if so desired. This uses a large helical screw that feels like using the focus adjustment on a fine camera lens. This fine adjustment is also done on the fly.
There is no perceptible play or looseness in any part of this tonearm assembly and the machine work is high end camera quality. The pivot bearings are actually miniature ball bearing assembly’s, no pointy screws in a divot with loose balls. The bearing layout for both vertical and horizontal movement is a true gimbal design unlike most tonearms. The tonearm tube is internally damped with a strip of felt and the SME type removable headshell is gripped by a collet arrangement.
There is no azimuth adjustment but a headshell with azimuth adjustment takes care of that.
It’s very obvious the Victor spent considerable time engineering these fine tonearms and they were found on Victors highest end models.
I find it the easiest tonearm to setup and adjust and have several of them.
BillWojo
To set the VTA there is a large knurled lock ring that has a nicely machined collet underneath. Simply loosen the knurled ring after setting the fine VTA adjustment ring to the zero mark and slide the tonearm up or down to get the headshell dead level. Now tighten the knurled ring and use the fine adjust ring to raise or lower the tonearm + or - 3 mm. The fine adjust knurled ring is clearly calibrated with widely spaced markings for every 0.5 mm increment. Easy to estimate 0.1 mm changes or less if so desired. This uses a large helical screw that feels like using the focus adjustment on a fine camera lens. This fine adjustment is also done on the fly.
There is no perceptible play or looseness in any part of this tonearm assembly and the machine work is high end camera quality. The pivot bearings are actually miniature ball bearing assembly’s, no pointy screws in a divot with loose balls. The bearing layout for both vertical and horizontal movement is a true gimbal design unlike most tonearms. The tonearm tube is internally damped with a strip of felt and the SME type removable headshell is gripped by a collet arrangement.
There is no azimuth adjustment but a headshell with azimuth adjustment takes care of that.
It’s very obvious the Victor spent considerable time engineering these fine tonearms and they were found on Victors highest end models.
I find it the easiest tonearm to setup and adjust and have several of them.
BillWojo