VTA on the fly

Ralph(Atma-sphere), I agree on the Triplanar, but I’m not sure why you think I needed to know how to adjust VTA on the TP. As you know, I’ve owned mine since the early 90s, at least. Built by Herb Papier in his basement factory. But I also these days use 4 other tonearms regularly. I find with all of them that unlocking and then re-locking the adjuster is difficult to do without disturbing the stylus in the groove during play. And to avoid such traumatic events, I prefer to stop play, do the adjustment, and then drop the needle back down on the LP exactly where it was. That’s just me.If my aural memory was so poor that I could not recall the SQ before the VTA adjustment to compare it to the result of the adjustment, then I really ought not to be an audiophile. That said, I would not own a tonearm that did not have the feature of easily adjusting the VTA.

I agree also that Herb’s design for VTA adjustment on the fly has been copied by many. Since the TP probably dates back to the 80s, I think we can now fairly say that it is a vintage design, and a classic one at that. Probably should be in any audio hall of fame.

@larryi 

for VTA on the fly remotely try Expressimo Audio .

for me it's stop everything , loosen the bolt that holds the tonearm 
and raise or lower then tighten the bolt circa 1985 Merrill turntable .

@lewm  Have you had your Triplanar updated since Tri Mai took over? If not you're missing a bet; he's improved the precision of the VTA tower and its effortless on the fly.

IF SRA is correct for thin LP, then, to play a thick LP, the rear of the arm needs to be raised a speck to maintain perfect 92 degrees into the groove. How much typically? Or, set 92 degrees for an average thickness and enjoy. 

92 degrees should be regarded as an approximation. I own a mastering lathe so I can tell you that the cutting stylus is only good for about 10 hours before it becomes too noisy. At that time, the engineer has to remove the cutterhead and install a new one. After that, he re-installs it and goes thru the procedure of test cuts until he zeros in on getting a silent groove to be actually silent. IOW he measures for noise in the groove rather than going for 92 degrees (stylus temperature, cutter height, tangential alignment and cutting pressure are the main variables). As a result, the actual SRA can be a bit off of 92 degrees, as much as a degree and obviously varies from LP to LP.

I love my Kuzma 4-Point and its VTA tower and locking device work beautifully, but the lines marked on the micrometer tower are not easy to see/read. It would be a dream if I could mark the tower for 150, 180, and 200 grams. Another problem is that my turntable is in a separate room from the listening room so dialing it in is very time consuming. Mine is set for 180 gram records and I play a lot of 180's, but over the last ten years since Classic Records and now Chad pressing 200 gram, I play a LOT of 200 gram records, along with a lot of oldies on thinner records. Stay Safe, stay home. Hard for a guy who has been working 14/14 offshore for the last 24 years. Peace................ 

I have a Graham 1.5 mounted on a VPI HW-19 Mk IV.  It allows setting VTA on the fly.  I used to set VTA by ear, which worked quite well.  But it required a lot of trial and error, up and down, back and forth effort.  It was quite painstaking.

I don’t know where I got this idea, but I bought a very light, tiny, circular bubble level.  It weighs not quite 2 grams.

It is small enough to place on top of the headshell.  It is light enough to place on the headshell and lower the cartridge onto a non-spinning record without stressing the cantilever. 

So now, I set the cartridge down on a motionless record and adjust VTA (and azimuth) until the tiny bubble is exactly in the center. 

No back and forth, no up and down.  

It seems to work great!  Every time I do it, that particular record sounds amazing!  For that record, it sounds as if I am in the concert hall or studio with the musicians.

 

The only problem is that now, I want to do it for each and every individual record.  Audiophile problems!