VTA and HTA overhang

Why would the overhang change when you adjust the VTA? It seems to me the only other setting that should be affected is the SRA.

Peterayer,

I don't quite understand your triangle illustration, but you seem to be making an assertion that as you move the arm up or down, you pull the stylus in or out. I just don't think this is correct. Perhaps large VTA adjustments might result in stylus displacement, but I just don't see why small changes in VTA should result in overhang changes. The simplest illustration I can think of is lifting a fork that is placed teeth down on a flat surface. You can certainly move the back of the fork up and down without bringing the teeth on or out; you only change the angle at which the teeth and the surface interface.

If you were correct, any tonearm designer who offers VTA adjustment on the fly would not understand the basics of cartridge alignment, which is absurd. My guess is you're doing something else to the alignment as you adjust the VTA that would explain the overhang changes you noticed.

Sarcher30

Actusreus, your fork analogy does not work. If you could lift the rear of the fork straight up without letting it move forward as you lift it would pull the front back. This is quite easy to test with your tonearm. Just setup your alignment protractor and play with VTA. It's easy to see.

Sean and Peter,
Remember that you're not actually moving the tonearm, but the VTA tower or essentially the column that is supporting the tonearm. So in my fork example, if you threaded the back of the fork and inserted a screw that would allow only vertical motion, you could move the back of the fork without pulling it in or out.

I will adjust the VTA today on my table just of out curiosity. I know Doug adjusts the VTA for each record so it'd be interesting to hear his opinion on the matter.

I adjusted the VTA today by lowering the back of the tonearm. I then checked the overhang, and the adjustment in the VTA did indeed appear to change the overhang, but too insignificantly to take notice. Admittedly, I changed the VTA very slightly, and I acknowledge that bigger changes might indeed affect the overhang to a more significant degree.

I find it curious that this is never mentioned when the VTA is discussed. As I mentioned in my previous post, you have to wonder about the utility of the VTA on the fly adjustments. To me the entire idea was that it allowed real time adjustments while keeping other variables constant. I suppose if the changes are minuscule, I can still see the benefit, but this does seem to warrant at least some discussion.

Btw, is Doug on vacation? This thread begs for his input. Doug, chime in!