VPI HW-19 with Graham 1.5 arm Question/Suggestions

Bingo!

You state:

”The sound is good but rather lightweight, neutral and nimble but polite, one might say meek with tight but lean bass. ” Exactly what I heard the times that I heard the original CLS.

For whatever it may be worth, from the Stereophile mag review of the CLS:

-“The bass was a little lightweight, there being a lack of upper bass”.

-“there was then a hole before the relatively sparse low bass came in.”

-“the bass being definitely a little sluggish compared with the treble”,

-“Another aspect of the CLS sound bothered me more in the long term: a lack of dynamic range in the lower mids and upper bass”.

If you are planning on keeping the CLS (it does have a beautiful transparency), my suggestion is to look for a VPI SDS motor controller. Bass will be improved to a degree that no mat, clamp or VTA adjustment will approach, and most importantly dynamics will be greatly improved. Music will be less polite with much more sense of groove.

Good luck.

Btw, I have no personal experience with the newer ADS motor controller, but it has not received as much positive commentary as the SDS which I like very much. There are other brands that are well regarded that work with the HW. Lastly, when did you last check, clean out and replace the oil in the HW’s bearing well? You may be surprised at the improvement in the areas that you are not happy with.

I agree there will be tonal changes when you change SRA. However there is a correct VTA/SRA and the tone accompanying it should be accepted. It may or may not be the setting with arm exactly parallel to the disk, probably not. As I wrote, it should not be used as a tone control if you want the max information off a disk.  Your choice, of course.

The OP can see that recommendations and "whats wrong" are all over the place.

I've heard countless uber setups with every form of "correct" setup. Just about any decent brand/technology will sound "good."

One thing for certain is it's the sum of everything-excluding additional add on footers, mats, etc. IMO.

Trying a different cart with the existing setup makes more sense. My VPI is leagues LESS than the OP's, and there certainly isn't any shortage of performance on both ends of the spectrum.

A $500-700 Audio Technica OC9 or whatever can dramatically change the game. After that, it's what I mentioned earlier-use the best available phono stage to maximize its potential.

Source recording makes a HUGE difference in performance.

I use ML Theos, many steps below the OP's CLS. No shortage of convincing music. Subjective, of course like the rest of audiophoolery.  

@hoodjem, you have a pretty decent setup. Before you buy anything, you may want to pick up a NAB broadcast test disc and measure the voltage output from your preamp. In doing so you'll get a pretty good idea what the response is of your whole playback system. Once you have data on what the output voltages are at the test frequencies coming out of your preamp, you can determine if they are low or high then determine what needs to be done to improve them.