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Setting VTA on a new Shelter 901?

I'm trying to dial in a new Shelter 901, knowing I face several dozen hours of break-in before I ought to be too critical.

It's in an SME IV.vi arm on a SOTA Star. The arm has a VTA adjustment dial/rod...but it's not that easy to move, up or downward. Both ways requires loosening some base screws, etc. Not precisely repeatable, either. Nevermind that, my question is...

What's a good "geometry" ballpark to begin VTA tweaking...
cartridge bottom parallel to record? Slightly down at the back? Somebody on Audiogon mentioned slightly down at the front, but that sounds (and looks, in my mind's eye) very scary. But, so far, what do I know?

The cartridge is very, very slightly down in the rear right now, about 1-2° I'd say. Bass seems mostly controlled, but load...treble (strings) are very bright...vocals I'm familiar with seem pretty about right...so far, nothing I'd call warmth. That's some break-up that happens on crescendos...sounds like eggs frying ...seems more like electronic distortion ugliness that mistracking.

Thanks for any help and ideas.

Noel
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Showing 2 responses by nnauber

nnauber's avatar
nnauber OP
4 posts
 
Thsalmon,
Some time ago, I forget what for, I made a protractor (just several accurate fine lines of acute angles from 0° to about 10°) on a sheet of clear plastic. I lower the stylus onto a record (not playing) and then lay the base line (0°) of my protractor on the record, slide it till one of the lines match and note the angle of the cartridge.
It's really pretty easy to be very precise.
nnauber's avatar
nnauber OP
4 posts
 
Thanks for all your tips and comments.
I'm still breaking-in...just reached the 20 hour mark on my Shelter 901. But I have found a really sweet spot in my slowly increasing VTA adjustments. Having started at about 1.5° down at the rear, and adjusting my SME IV.vi in 1/8-clockwise increments, I'm now just a tiny hair from dead flat (cartridge bottom relative to record surface)...with probably a bit more to gain in treble smoothness.
But I think I'll wait till the 50-hr. mark before further "+" VTA tweaks.
Cheers, all.
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