What is best VTA for Clearaudio Maestro Cartridge?

Thanks for all your input regarding this cartridge situation. When I first put the Clearaudio Maestro cartridge on the 10.5 arm I was not even able to adjust the arm to have the proper 2.5 gram tracking weight, so I put the metal weight that comes with the Maestro between the cartridge and tonearm. Now, I can adjust to the proper tracking weight, but the sound is still not very good. I was thinking of trying to put he extra weight on top of the tonearm instead of between the cartridge and the tonearm. maybe I should put an even heavier weight installed with the cartridge I have also not yet put the damping fluid in the tone arm well. I understand that this should improve things, but from what Kehut has written, this may not be enough to solve the problems. I may just have to get used to the fact that I need a different cartridge to match with the 10.5 arm. I do appreciate the information that the Maestro should not sound bright, but warm. That is why I brought the cartridge in the first place. I will continue to get a good sound out of the Maestro on this table and report back if I have had any luck. Thanks for your comments.

I have not tried the Mint alignment tool, if that is what you are referring to Stringreen. I am not currently using the anti-skate. What has your experience been with the Mint alignment tool compared to the VPI alignment tool?

Here is an update of my problems with getting my Clearaudio Maestro cartridge to sound good with my Super Scoutmaster Reference Turntable. As I have stated previously, because my Maestro Wood cartridge is so light in weight, I was not able to set the proper Vertical tracking force on the VPI 10.5 arm - I could not bring the rear counter weight forward enough. So, I had to use the extra small metal weight that Clearaudio includes with the Maestro cartridge. I installed this weight between the Maestro and the tone arm head shell. This enabled me to set the proper VTF of 2.5 grams.

After setting up the cartridge, the sound that was created was shrill, edgy, bright - really bad. I tried different tone arm cables with no change. I played with VTA and traking force and rechecked the arm set up. The terrible sound did not change. So, I decided to try putting the extra Clearaudio weight on top of the tone arm head shell, instead of in between the cartridge and head shell. The sound did not change much; still very unpleasant.

After living with this frustration for a while and thinking I should give up on this cartridge, I came up with the idea of trying the cartridge decoupler that came with an older MCZ Grado cartridge that I own. This decoupler is a light weight, metal like triangular piece that has three raised dimples on each of it's three corners. It is installed between the cartridge and the head shell and the three dimples rest against the cartridge, thereby decoupling it from the head shell to some extent. After setting up the cartridge for like the tenth time, I sat down for a listen. The sound was very different and much better. My records are now listenable and the sound is pretty good. I do believe there is room for more improvement though. For what I paid for this table, it should sound fantastic. So, I will continue to work with the Clearaudio Maestro. I think it can sound better.

There are a few more things that I think will improve the sound. One is the Mapleshade Nanomount system, which gets a lot of recommendations for the VPI tables. This will further isolate my cartridge from the tone arm. (see http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/nanomountsystem.php)

The other thing that I believe will help is to experiment with different resistance/capacitance loadings in my Magus preamp. Another Audiogon member has had good luck doing this using the same cartridge I have. Also, I spoke to Mike at VPI and he said they just got in a new McIntosh preamp that lets the user automatically change resistance/capacitance loading from a remote. Mike said that the change in sound can be startling.

The third thing is to keep trying different phone cables until I get one that sounds great.

Any comments or any other ideas that you readers may have are welcome. I have a feeling that I can make the Maestro sound great with my SSM table, but it may take a while.
Thanks for all you help. Joe