Pickup SRA - starting from a 500x microscope
You can adjust the arm lift down with the microscopic allen wrench supplied in your tool kit for the SME. Midway in the rubber strip there a tiny hole that the allen wrench is inserted through to engage a adjustment screw below, this is a VERY finicky and fragile adjustment so be very careful. Your SME Manual have instructions on this on page 20 paragraph 536, if you don't have them manual one can be downloaded from Vinyl Engine Best of luck Peter |
Thank you Peter - but the arm rest is already fully down, or very close to it (if I could only find that allen wrench), so I don't think it will change much. Also the microscope is still on loan to a friend. Btw he has a big dog that likes good music, so I've been wondering perhaps he could train it to hear proper VTA. Just joking. |
Your Welcome, the allen wrench is a .09MM and a set containing it is available Here Remember even a VERY tiny adjustment at the base of the arm will result in a significant change in cueing height Best of Luck Peter |
Thanks again! I have to get that wrench, it got lost. To sum up: my Atlas sounds best as far up as I can get it, on my SME V arm on a Hanss T-30 turntable. I have measured, this is not very far up at the back, 2-3 mm or so from parallel. Perhaps I can get 1 mm more by adjusting the lift fully down. It becomes obvious that the SME V engineers did not include "off" cases - a needle and styles fairly close to the ideal angle is presupposed. If you have a poorly adjusted cartridge, you must use a shim, the high and low points of the arm adjustment create a quite narrow adjustment zone. BTW this type of compromise is typical of the SME V in other respects also. For example, structural integrity rules. So a shim is not the thing one wants, on this arm, with the shell integrated as part of the arm. The point of the microscope is not to tell me, exactly what degree is my stylus. It can be off by an error of 1-2 degrees, or even more. The point is to give me a rough idea, where am I, compared to using the ears alone. Personally I am tired of people with golden ears who supposedly are able to adjust vta/sra by listening alone. I find that their magic may have worked last evening, but this morning I am not so sure. |
September 2016 update I have gone down to a more moderate arm position, just a bit up from parallell. I have done some more microscope tests but have mainly given up on the method, for now. I took two older Lyra cartridges to a shop that claimed to give good microscope analysis, but they did not deliver, beyond a vague message that they looked worn. In fact, one was worn, the other not. |
