What angle should I set the VTA on my VPI turntable?

The "tone control" aspect is once again putting the focus on only the most gross, crude, entry-level aspect of VTA adjustment. The idea of adjusting according to some table of record thicknesses is equally fruitless. Either put in the time and effort to learn to hear what is going on, in which case you will almost certainly agree fine tuning is an art well worth mastering, or don’t in which case set it and forget it.

In any case you already have the one and only thing needed to perfectly fine tune VTA: your ears. 

Read the number off the dial, write it down on the record sleeve, done. Next time you can dial it back precisely where it was, fast and simple as reset the dial.

Sounds like a lot of work and that puts a lot of guys off. But, how many hours, weeks, months of working and saving did it take to get the thing in the first place? Ever wonder why it is people pay hundreds of dollars for some guy to come tune their table and say it was well worth it? Ever wonder what it was they did that was so magical? This is it.

Needless to say this will not be worth it if you are unable to hear the improvement. But then how did you manage to set it in the first place?

One thing a lot of these comments have in common is what I consider extremely large or gross adjustments. This is fine if all you want is to be somewhere in the ball park.   

But for that you don't need a USB microscope, or even a bubble level. All you need is a piece of paper with parallel lines. Hold it on the platter, adjust the arm tube parallel, call it good. None of these other things are gonna get you any better, because from here it must be done by ear.  

Sure you can use those other methods. Just don't kid yourself they are any better. For the simple reason the fine-tuning of VTA is orders of magnitude smaller than anything you can see even with a USB microscope.  

VTA differences I have heard are as small as 1 mark on a VTA dial, like the one on the VPI. On my Graham these were about 1-2mm apart. The Graham VTA adjuster is about 24 threads per inch. It has been a while so I forget but it seems there were something like 30 of these marks all the way around. 30x24=720 so one mark is 1/720th of an inch. Pretty close to one one thousandth. Origin Live thread pitch is finer and looks more like 32tpi. Also the wheel is a lot larger. This probably explains why with Graham I was often times interpolating while with OL the larger marks spaced farther apart were fine. In both cases we wind up somewhere around 1/500th to 1/750th of an inch. 

This is vertical at the pivot point. Do your geometry if you want to work out how many arc seconds that is at the stylus. Go ahead, knock yourself out. As for me I am happy to rest assured it is less than you will ever be able to measure with any USB microscope. You just won't see it. But I sure can hear it.  

Probably a lot think this is crazy. Fine with me. Not the point. I am as always the last one to argue with anyone says they can't hear any difference, don't care, etc.  Just want to be real clear exactly what I am talking about when I say I do.     

If your VTA is off by as little as .01", then however good you think your imaging is, presence, extension, definition and detail, if it is even this much off you can make it better with a few micro VTA adjustments.   

This is why they put those tiny little marks on VTA adjusters. This is what you paid for when you bought that expensive arm. Use it or lose it.

No it is just the previously mentioned vinyl magic. Also, probably due mostly to stylus profile, this varies from cartridge to cartridge. My Benz Glider and Ruby really rewarded being fine tuned for each record. The Koetsu does reward being dialed in, but once that is done doesn't show nearly as much difference between records. Although to be honest it is really more a case of it sounds so doggone good I lose interest in tweaking and just want to sit there and enjoy the music it is making. 

Two degrees is not screw it. Two degrees is a freak show. Horror. Two degrees and you might as well have bought a CloseNPlay.

No you are dead wrong about the stylus being perpendicular. But forget all that. Once you have the arm tube parallel everything from here on in is by ear anyway. From here on in all you think about is what you are hearing, and which way to make your next microscopically small adjustment.

Try and understand, there are details in the record groove the finest squiggles of which are only about as big as a large organic molecule. Your fancy expensive stylus is precision cut with a special geometric profile designed precisely to trace such tiny squiggles. You fail to make this one essential adjustment you throw all that time and effort and money away. VTA is easily and by far the most important of all adjustments that can be made. It is only thanks to the magic of vinyl that it sounds so good even with crude nowhere near perfect VTA. Learn to get it dialed in just right and you will be richly rewarded.

Here’s how you do it. Starting off you are either too high or too low, don’t know which. Play any record. Really doesn’t matter but nice to use one you know well. If your arm is too high the sound will be very fast, articulate and detailed, but relatively lacking in body and fullness. Turn the dial no more than a few (3 to 5) of the smallest marks and listen again.

If you went the right direction you will have lost almost no detail but gained some body and weight. This is good. This means you are going in the right direction. Keep making small adjustments like this, one after another, for as long as the sound continues to improve.

At some point, you don’t know where, instead of gaining body and weight you will gain bloat and lose detail, especially top end detail. At this point you have gone too far. Dial it back. But only dial it back by about half your last move. Now you are close. Now you are fine-tuning. This is an iterative process, splitting the difference until there is no difference left to split. This is why they put all those tiny little marks on there, see? No way on Earth you can see the angle change. But you can easily hear it. Or learn to hear it.

Or if not, no sweat. Whole point is to get the sound you like. Lots of guys are happy with close enough. You paid a lot of money for what you have, but it is your money. If you are happy, great.

If what makes you happy is incredibly awesome vinyl playback, well then that is why they put those marks on there- so you can do this with all your records, or as many as you really care about anyway. It is just not that hard.

Your first one is always the hardest. Might take you all of both sides. Might take you more than one record. But once done you will find they are all very, very close to this same level. Also you get real good at hearing what is going on. This means adjusting from record to record goes a lot faster. It can be done in the time it takes to play one side, only getting up and adjusting a couple times. Read the number off the dial, write it down on the record sleeve, you are done. Next time you can dial it back precisely where it was, fast and simple as reset the dial.

Sounds like a lot of work and that puts a lot of guys off. But, how many hours, weeks, months of working and saving did it take to get the thing in the first place? Ever wonder why it is people pay hundreds of dollars for some guy to come tune their table and say it was well worth it? Ever wonder what it was they did that was so magical? This is it.