Cart adjustment, that moment when you nail it!

Alignment as in VTA?

Yes, and adjusting the cart alignment to the head shell. The SME V doesn’t have an azimuth adjustment per se, but it can be tweaked a tiny bit by making sure the arm is in perfect alignment when tightened after the VTA adjustment. I thought I was doing things in tiny increments, but turns out those “tiny” adjustments were still too big. It’s tedious, but it makes all the difference. Probably still more precision could be had with regard to azimuth, with shims etc, but I’m good for now.

What cartridge ? 
Just curious..

I’ve had many of those moments. But it’s pretty routine now. I have 105 cartridges. 27 are in my favorite stands, waiting to be rotated in.

Once getting it “right” becomes routine, and you’ve chosen an exact, easy alignment protractor, only then do you have a level of TRUST. 

THEN, when you hear something that’s not quite right, you KNOW it’s not your setup. You immediately know you have a record with groove damage or a bad pressing. No wondering or second-guessing your alignment.

Then....you’ve arrived!

I find that a deck of cards is useful in adjusting the vta. On my particular tonearm I have a cueing lever collar at base of tonearm. There is a gap there between the plinth and the collar. I take a base measurement of that space with numerous stacked cards and count the total amount of cards it took to "take up" that space. That’s my arbitrary starting point or reference, as that space will differ depending on where that collar was set at factory from table to table (in my case pro-ject). I then add or subtract cards to raise or lower the arm, upon loosening vta adjustment screws. I log the amount of cards used for each particular cartridge and use as reference. Been doing this for years with great success. In the end, it is your ears that are the final judge on the "sweet spot". However, That sweet spot won’t be optimal for all records. That is virtually impossible to achieve due to varying thickness of vinyl and quality of the pressing etc. You can only obtain a happy medium/average, unless you want to futz with it every time you play a record.