Asking for members blessings on Nagaoka MP 300 purchase

Nagaoka makes great carts. My reference for MI and MM cartridges.

Fwiw, the Nagaoka MP-300 is pretty sensitive to VTA.  It is also every thing suggested above, great insight and detail, slightly warm tilt, room filling bass.  The most “life like” sounding mm/mi cartridge I’ve heard to date. I like it so much I ordered an MP-500 stylus to see what that can do.  But if the VTA is even more sensitive than the 300, I will be doing a lot of adjusting between discs.

kn

Funny thing. I just set the top of the headshell parallel to the LP surface, and the MP500 delivers the goods on every LP. 

@lewm interesting that you don’t find any differences with the VTA between disks of different thickness with the MP-500.  I have some lp’s that are incredibly thick, and some from the 70s and early 80s that, well, maybe the bean counters intervened on material use.  The Nagaoka MP-300 is very sensitive to VTA, and changing thickness of platter mats makes a difference between meh and wow!

kn

Have you ever calculated the actual change in VTA that occurs when one adjusts for an "average" LP (in terms of thickness) and then plays for example a 200gm LP or on the other hand an exceptionally thin LP, like maybe an old RCA Dynagroove (they are flexible, so I assume they are thin)? The change in VTA is infinitesimal. If it makes a big (audible) difference to you, have at it. As for me, this is a level of anal behavior that I refuse to enter into. If I am missing something as a result, it’s an acceptable compromise. This is my attitude toward all of my cartridges on all of my different tonearms. Same goes for fussing with load resistors with MC cartridges. I use any value above that which is needed to achieve a ratio of 1:10 or better, between the internal R of the cartridge and the input impedance of the phono.

I found this quote on line, credited to Michael Fremer: "I don't buy that at all [?] nor do I buy changing VTA with different thickness records. On a 9" tonearm you need to move the back of the arm 4MM (that's a lot) to effect a 1 degree SRA change. The differences in thickness between these mats and indeed, between a 120g and 180g record is far less than 4MM and far less than 1 degree. Any differences heard from tiny changes in VTA/SRA are either in one's mind OR due to azimuth shifts that are easily audible and especially true on unipivot arms due to the offset angle..."

I might add also that claimed "improvements" associated with small tweaks of VTA (usually much much less than 4mm up or down) are usually based on snap subjective judgements, hardly a reliable indicator. But again, to anyone who derives satisfaction from tweaking VTA, you have my full support, because this is a hobby that first of all needs to give us pleasure.