VdH VTA setting preferences

Nsgarch:

God forbid I would be associated with the Intelligent Designers.

I don't doubt that you're right -- I'm sure you are -- maybe it's just that
"ass (pivot) end down" is what it takes to get the vdH
"spade"-shaped stylii seated in the grooves at the same
angle as the cutter head. Thanks for the info.

In any event, my VTA is only spot on for the LP I used to set it, as I lack
the patience to adjust VTA for LP's of differing thicknesses.

I just saw your loading post: my Froggie is vintage 2000 or so, and
recommended loading on the box is 500 Ohms. In addition to the 400
Ohm loading that I use, also have a 250 Ohm loading option -- the
sound is a bit closed down at 250. The loading options on the Cadence's
high gain settings are typical MC loading options of 30 and 50 Ohms,
but I've never spent any time listening to them, the gain being way too
high at 74 db. (my Frog has the 0.65 mV. output).

I have a vdH Frog and followed the instructions on the van den Hul website for setting VTA, which does indeed advise that the arm be slightly raised at the pivot end.

After much experimentation, I was still not satisfied that I was getting everything out of the cartridge. Owning a VPI Aries with a VPI JMW 10.5 arm, I consulted VPI, as they have a lot of experience with the Frog / JMW arm combo. They advised that the pivot end should be slightly down. Here is the e-mail, in pertinent part:

"From our own usage of this combination and from overall industry designs we have found that the Frog usually sounds the best with the back down slightly and the tracking weight around 1.5 grams. The biggest changes in sound when doing VTA happen when you are in the sweet spot. I do not think you are their [sic]. Try lowering the arm so that the back is slightly below level and rebalance your system for this setup."

Once I did this and really dialed it in, the cartridge sounded much better (more balanced, more extended, much better timbre ... just way more right). I do not know whether this result is unique to the VPI arms with the Frog (the resonant frequency of the Frog with that arm is not ideal, even though it is a popular combo), but the Frog features the same frontpole and suspension as the Grasshopper IV, and the same stylus shape (VDH - IS), radii (2 x 85 microns) and suggested VTA (22 degrees) as the Condor, Colibri and Grasshoppers.

I have a friend who also ran a JMW arm with Frog combo for several years, and he had the exact same experience. I'll ask him to chime in.

I can only second what Cincy_bob has added. It just sounds best this way to me.

FYI, I run my Frog into a Rowland Cadence loaded at 400 Ohms.

The van den Huls are known to be "artisanal' in the sense of variation from one cartridge to the next for a given model. Nsgarch's findings that one stylus was spot on and the other a bit off is consistent with this reputation.

A line-contact stylus is basically a Shibata stylus, which was created by RCA for its quadrophonic program in the early 70's -- they needed something sharper than the elliptical and conical designs of the day to be able to track the 30 kHz. high frequency carrier that had the information for the rear two channels. It was after this that its use was extended to stereo LP's.