2. analog
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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 larryi

larryi
4,151 posts
 
VTA on the fly is a handy feature, particularly if you will be adjusting VTA a lot.  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.  Some arms, like the Basis Vector arm, have a micrometer for moving the arm up and down which can be adjusted on the fl, but, when the right spot is found, the set screw to the main pillar has to be tightened, and then the micrometer must be backed off so that this adjustment mechanism is no longer in the vibration grounding/damping game.

The ideal would also be something that allows for remote control of the mechanism raising and lowering the arm so that you can listen to the change from your chair.  I don't know of anyone who offers this, although Airtangent had at least a prototype for an arm with remotely controlled VTA adjustment.
larryi
4,151 posts
 
I am in agreement that small changes do affect the sound.  My final adjustments are always smaller than 1 mm.  I know that, if you do the math, this represents a ridiculously small change in VTA/SRA, but, this can be heard in the way millercarbon described.
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