Best tonearm position for VTA?

If you're asking how do you initially get in the VTA or SRA ballbark so you can do the final evaluation with your ears, I think that's a great question. The sites I listed below are the best ones I've found so far, and if other people know some more, please post them.

As for the ballpark....... To start with, it would be wonderful if all cartridge manufacturers constructed their cartridges with 1.) dead-on azimuth so that if the cartridge was level viewed from the front, the stylus was perfectly vertical, and 2.) so when the the top of the cartridge was perfectly parallel to the record surface (when viewed from the side, and at the specified tracking force,) the stylus was also perfectly vertical (perpendicular to the record) -- but many do not.

The best way to check your cartridge is with a first surface mirror out of an SLR camera (I got 5 of them for $20 from a camera repair shop) and a 30x pocket microscope (Tasco makes a good one with a light). The camera mirrors are just about the thickness of a record, so turn off the anti-skate, tape the platter to the deck so it doesn't turn! and GENTLY set the stylus on the mirror. You will have to experiment with illuminating the stylus (I use a mini Mag-Lite or a Littlelite) but it is quite easy to see the stylus and it's reflection in the mirror, and determine if the two images are symmetrical on the vertical axis (this works for both azimuth and SRA) and to adjust your tonearm accordingly. No, you're not in the ballpark yet (and you've just spent five hours getting to this point, right!)

I suggest doing the next part another day. It really is fun and you don't want to be exhausted! First get a millimeter ruler and measure the horizontal distance in mm from the pivot point of your tonearm to the tip of the stylus (eyeball is OK, or consult a drawing of your tonearm if you have one). Write it down and multiply it by 2. This is the DIAMETER (in millimeters) of a circle the stylus would make, if when you lifted the tonearm from the record, it magically just kept going up up and around behind the turntable and up through the base and back on the record surface. The length of the imaginary CIRCUMFERENCE just made by the stylus can be determined by multiplying Pi (3.1416) times the DIAMETER you already calculated. We're almost done.

Divide the CIRCUMFERENCE (which is still in millimeters) by 360 (degrees in a full circle.) The result tells you how many millimeters of CIRCUMFERENCE are in each degree. (It should come out approximately 3mm/degree +/-)

What this all means, is that if you started with your stylus perfectly vertical (viewed from the side) and you now raise the back of your tonearm 3mm (measured at the pivot point) Your stylus has now got a positive rake angle (SRA) of ONE DEGREE. I understand that most cutters use a cutting angle of TWO DEGREES, but I wouldn't start there, you might miss the magic spot which you can only determine by listening. So now you're in the ballpark.

VTA (which is a different measurement) and SRA are somewhat interdependent, which is why you can't just go with an SRA of TWO DEGREES and be done with it. The following websites explore these issues in more detail:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/vta_e.html

http://www.walkeraudio.com/fine_tuning_your_turntable.htm

http://www.deadwaxcafe.com/vzone/cartalign.asp#vta

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/1240.html

RE: Tail-down tonearm configuration: I agree with Dan_ed's findings. For tail-down configuration to be viable, it seems to me the cartridge maker would have had to build the cartridge with so much SRA to begin with, that to get the SRA down to the 1 degree (+/-) ballpark would require lowering the rear end of the tonearm. So would anyone care to speculate on (or explain to me what I'm missing here) why a cartridge maker might want to do that??

Sirspeedy -- this is a little off thread but: When I see a certain U/N on a post, I definitely read it, or I never read it, depending. You belong to the former category. I don't always understand/agree with you, but your posts are often laced with a little humor; and you don't cling to knowledge as if you're never going to get any more!

But this morning, when I read the thing about the Leica Rangefinder, I laughed so hard I nearly sprayed coffee all over my keyboard!