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VTA on the fly

Of the four tonearms I own, they all have VTA on the fly.  Several months ago I had a small club meeting at my house for Classical music with LP's. 

Now this is really interesting, one of the attendees claims to have a 30,000 LP record collection.  This gentleman in his mid 70's is very familiar with the Boston Symphony Hall and orchestra.  When I played a Boston Symphony record that he brought, he claimed there should be more bass.  While the record was playing I turned the micrometer one half turn clockwise, and there was according to him the right amount of bass.  He then asked me what I did, because he seemed startled, and had no idea.

Think of it, an audiophile that loves and has been playing LP's for over fifty years, but had no idea of the advantages of VTA on the fly.  
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Showing 2 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,012 posts
 
@lewm  Have you had your Triplanar updated since Tri Mai took over? If not you're missing a bet; he's improved the precision of the VTA tower and its effortless on the fly.

IF SRA is correct for thin LP, then, to play a thick LP, the rear of the arm needs to be raised a speck to maintain perfect 92 degrees into the groove. How much typically? Or, set 92 degrees for an average thickness and enjoy. 
92 degrees should be regarded as an approximation. I own a mastering lathe so I can tell you that the cutting stylus is only good for about 10 hours before it becomes too noisy. At that time, the engineer has to remove the cutterhead and install a new one. After that, he re-installs it and goes thru the procedure of test cuts until he zeros in on getting a silent groove to be actually silent. IOW he measures for noise in the groove rather than going for 92 degrees (stylus temperature, cutter height, tangential alignment and cutting pressure are the main variables). As a result, the actual SRA can be a bit off of 92 degrees, as much as a degree and obviously varies from LP to LP.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,012 posts
 
But, it may also mean that the tonearm is not being held as rigidly as possible or that the VTA adjustment mechanism will become a source of unwanted resonant behavior.
@lewm The Triplanar is pretty good in both departments. It has a knurled screw you can use to lock it into position. The main adjuster is also very precise. Most of the 'on the fly' VTA towers used today are copies of the Triplanar design which was the first to have it. 
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