Question concerning the Mint Tractor

Josephdtorres,

The Mint's thicker than any LP I've seen, including old 230-240g Deccas. Alignment should be accomplished with all parameters as close to actual playing conditions as possible. Why align for any other condition?

This includes VTA, which your JMW provides an easy way to adjust. Why be lazy? Just crank the arm up until the cartidge is sitting at about the same angle as you normally play. Takes all of 2 seconds ...

Tim's geometry clarification was excellent.

In addition, changing VTA on most arms alters VTF, so the cantilever wouldn't be sitting at the same angle as it does during play.

True observation, Tvad. Overhang will surely change every time one plays an LP differing in height from the Mint (or whatever protractor was used).

Adjusting VTA/SRA is indeed an inexact science, but fortunately it's a very exact art. :-) We adjust by ear, for every record. Accurate sound is the goal. Accurate geometry is just a means to that end.

FWIW, most of our VTA adjustments are far less than the thickness of any mat, less than a sheet of paper even. I've posted it a zillion times and everyone thinks we're crazed - until they visit and hear the difference for themselves. Ask Dan_Ed or Swampwalker or Raul. They've all watched me raise or lower the arm by a hair's thickness and heard the sound snap into focus.

Whether its worth the effort is up to each of us of course, but for me it's become second nature and takes literally no playing time. We record the height for each LP so replay setups are instant.

Thom and others have suggested that Paul and I may become less particular about this after Mint-ing. That hasn't happened and isn't likely too. Why should improved stylus alignment in one plane encourage sloppiness in another? My lazy backside understands the appeal, but my ears don't.

Thom,

Good point about errors compounding, and interesting virtual observations from the stylus' POV. I've learned alot by doing those gedankenexperimenten.

The force vectors on a misaligned stylus must indeed put stresses on cantilever and suspension that no cartridge designer could plan for. Of course on a pivoting arm our zenith angle is *always* misaligned, except at two points. Therefore...

I've wistfully noted that the Mint helps me imagine what a good tangential tracker might sound like at all points across the LP. My dream has always been a Kuzma Air Line. Some day...

Point-of-weirdness:
Mint-ing has greatly reduced distortion, but the increased clarity has also made the L to R shift in soundstage as the arm tracks between null points more audible than ever. "Watching" the musicians sidle slowly across the room and back is strange, who knew a string quartet could perform as a marching band?!

As you suggested, we did pay little attention to VTA during the first LP sides after Mint-ing. (Though we'd chosen familiar records, so the VTA # was known and dialed in out of habit.) The music is more holistic, as Swampwalker said, so it's easier to lose yourself in it and we do, very happily. But we're also both driven by an internal sense of what acoustic instruments sound like. Adjustments we know are needed will always be made. Pretty insufferable, I guess. :-)