SME IV Tonearm and Warped Records

I've been using SME products for nearly two decades now and have never seen or experienced that problem. I heard it on the forums once or twice before, but always figured it was a bad rumor. 

Properly set up, serious warps play without a problem in my system, with plenty of clearance left. These records so warped, that I toss them into garbage right after.

So my questions are:

Are these records so severely warped that you have no business playing them on such nice components? If so, junk them.

Is the VTA properly set up, where the white line at the center of the arm wand is parallel to the surface of the record? And verified with a proper measuring tool within 0.1mm?

@cleeds Hmmm, I disagree. One should never ever align VTA to the cantilever. VTA should be aligned by either having the top of the cartridge be parallel to record’s surface, or if you’re Fremer, one can use a microscope to look at the stylus’ SRA.

I personally find the microscope idea ridiculous.

I have corresponded with just about all major cartridge manufacturers and every single one of them recommend that the top of the cartridge, or the tonearm wand should be parallel to the record. And that’s good enough for me.

If the cantilever is mounted wrong, or the stylus is crooked, get a new cartridge. Why bother compensating for crap like that?

@cleeds All cartridges should have their tops parallel to the record’s surface and all of those angles you speak of will be correct if the manufacturer didn’t muck something up during assembly. If the cartridge is out of spec, get a new one. Simple as that.

SRA should be correct if top of the cartridge is parallel to the record. If not, get a new cartridge.

This is direct information from speaking to engineers at Ortofon and Audio Technica.

I stick to real companies who have been in business manufacturing cartridges for a long time (i.e. Audio Technica, Ortofon, Nagaoka, etc.) and have never had any problems whatsoever. If a problem is suspected, then it should be checked by the manufacturer and all of the good companies are willing to do that no questions asked.

I question the ability of an end user to measure anything cartridge related properly. Audiophile ninjas armed with junk Chinese $12.99 USB microscopes make me laugh. Many times I've seen people take 10 measurements and get 10 wildly different SRAs. 

You guys honestly think that you can accurately measure stylus and cantilever geometries? Maybe a few, sure. Cartridge manufacturers use hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of dollars worth of sensitive calibrated tools. And they have technicians with decades worth of experience assembling and testing each cartridge.

All these stories of angles not matching up, or styluses mounted improperly are 99.9999999 end user error. 

The only thing that anyone can and should be measuring is that the top of the cartridge or the tonearm wand is parallel to the record's surface, the rest should be left and assumed that the experienced manufacturer got right.

If in the extreme rare instance there is a defect, the good companies will take care of you. If they don't, buy from better companies. And stay away from used cartridges. 

@cjaronica Why not just throw the warped records away and get flat ones?

@snackeyp Your tonearm is set up incorrectly.