VTF, VTA, SRA, and 92 degrees - question


I'm familiar with the logic that has been out there for a while about setting SRA at 92 degrees for what is considered the optimal styus position, based on a lot of analysis done by Elison and others. My question is, if VTF and VTA are set per cart maker's recommendations (let's discount Anti-skate for this discussion even though it would come into play), then wouldn't the SRA be automatically set optimally per the manufacturer's intention? Assume a cart that is built to the company's design parameters - no bent cantilever, no offset stylus etc.

Take a Benz cart for example. Many (if not all) of them specify a VTA of 20 degrees. So if VTF (and yes A-S) and arm height are set so that when all's said and done the VTA is 20 degrees, isn't that what it *should* be set at based on how Benz expects that cart to perform?

I ask because I set the SRA on my Benz to 92 degrees going by that camp, and when I checked the SRA it was at - guess what - about 22 degrees. That kind of suggests Benz expects the stylus to be at 90 degrees relative to the record. Isn't that how they've designed it? Don't I run the risk of having to compensate in other ways if the cart winds up exhibiting tracking problems at an SRA that does not support the specified VTA?
tonyptony

Showing 1 response by actusreus

Atmasphere
Most new LPs I see these days are really well done.

You must be joking. The quality of the great majority of today's records is absolutely abysmal. Finding a record that's flat on both sides is a rarity, as it finding one that has no surface noise. As I'm writing this I'm listening to Norah Jones "Feels Like Home" pressed at Kassem's QRP that retails for close to $40, and the record is both warped and has audible surface noise that's worse than on many of my records I bought used. Oh, and that's the replacement that Analogue Productions sent me. The original was much worse...

Sorry to get off-topic, but I just can't read such statements and stay silent.