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VTA and HTA overhang

I was adjusting VTA on my tonearm tonight and out of curiosity decided to check how it effected the overhang according to my MINT LP protractor. To my surprise, very small changes to VTA on my 12" arm are quite noticeable when trying to align my stylus to the arc on my alignment protractor.

My question is to all of you who change VTA for each LP. How do you compensate or adjust for the resulting change in Horizontal Tracking Angle (HTA) or overhang each time you change your VTA setting?

Besides the hassle of adjusting VTA for different LPs, this is another reason I don't fuss with VTA once I have found a good setting for the majority of my LPs. I wonder if those who attribute sonic differences to VTA changes are not also hearing slight changes to alignment which surely effects the sonics.
peterayer

Showing 1 response by mofimadness

mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,933 posts
 
As one who has set-up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tables/arms/cartridges, I can attest to the fact that as you change VTA/SRA, it will also change the overhang.

As Peter states above, as the back of the arm goes up, the tip of the stylus moves in. As the back of the arm goes down, the tip of the stylus moves out.

That's why if you make a change in one, you must recheck the other. Just like VTF will affect VTA/SRA.

I agree with Peter that if a user is changing the VTA/SRA for each record, they should also check/change the overhang.

I've always kind of thought that the changes one hears by adjusting the VTA/SRA, might be due to the overhang change as much as the change to the VTA/SRA? Just my take...
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