I primarily enjoy vintage tables, and none of the ones I have owned have VTA on the fly. Its one of the features that I wish every table had. You can get by with padding under the record or shims between the cartridge and headshell, but then every time you change VTA at the cartridge, you need to realign. What a pain.
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.
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.