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VTA on the fly

Of the four tonearms I own, they all have VTA on the fly.  Several months ago I had a small club meeting at my house for Classical music with LP's. 

Now this is really interesting, one of the attendees claims to have a 30,000 LP record collection.  This gentleman in his mid 70's is very familiar with the Boston Symphony Hall and orchestra.  When I played a Boston Symphony record that he brought, he claimed there should be more bass.  While the record was playing I turned the micrometer one half turn clockwise, and there was according to him the right amount of bass.  He then asked me what I did, because he seemed startled, and had no idea.

Think of it, an audiophile that loves and has been playing LP's for over fifty years, but had no idea of the advantages of VTA on the fly.  
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stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,368 posts
 
Azimuth is also affected......everything comes into play.
analogvm15's avatar
analogvm15
112 posts
 
Grace 707. Can't do it. Many records I like from very thin to very thick. They all sound great. Not that OCD.
agrippa
160 posts
 
Perhaps he just loves music and the equipment is just something he needs to get there.
My thought exactly. Hard as it may be to believe, some people just use their equipment to listen to music, without obsessing about other stuff.  Strange but true.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
My Micro Seiki MA505LS arm on my 401 has VTA on the fly that is very easily and gently moved while a record is playing. It also incorporates a very secure locking method.
Check the arm out on vinyl engine or similar to see how this VTA on the fly works, it is a basic inbuilt feature of the arm design and not a later add on type of system.

While my ears are not as finely honed as drrsutliff, I can easily hear the changes depending upon the quality of the cartridge being used at the time.
The Koetsu Black Goldline and the Ortofon Black Cadenza were very audible to my ears with VTA on the fly change.

Vintage MM carts definitely not so much so.
larryi
3,718 posts
 
I am in agreement that small changes do affect the sound.  My final adjustments are always smaller than 1 mm.  I know that, if you do the math, this represents a ridiculously small change in VTA/SRA, but, this can be heard in the way millercarbon described.
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