What is best VTA for Clearaudio Maestro Cartridge?

Joe - I wanted to let you know that I own the Virtuoso that came with the Marantz TT, as sold by Crutchfield, and that I also purchased a used Maestro on ebay. I loaded the Maestro onto an inexpensive STANTON T.50 TT while breaking in the new Virtuoso on the Marantz. I could hear the Virtuoso open up and smooth out after about 35-40 hrs, while the used Maestro was pre-owned and already broken in. What I wanted to tell you is this: the Maestro on that Stanton (it has a removable headshell and installing a cartridge is super easy) made incredible playback of my LPs: RICHER and more plush sonics than the very fine Virtuoso, with as much and possibly more detail. The bass was so full and pleasant, while the spread and soundstage were excellent. You just wanted to stay and listen. The Virtuoso never quite gave me that same feeling. It sounded really fine, and I enjoyed analyzing each record it played in sonic terms, but with the Maestro, you just immediately heard this "richer" sound and thought: "yeah, baby - this is what I was after!", which is odd since they are so close in price. I guess my point is - before you totally sour on the Maestro due to all the histrionics you are going through with it, consider buying a (approx. $100) Stanton turntable and loading on your Maestro - it seems a great match, and will let you know what you've been missing immediately, for very little cash outlay!

There is a resonance frequency calculation tool that should give you a pretty good idea of how well a cartridge and arm will mate. You simply need to know the mass of the arm and cartridge and the compliance of the cartridge. If memory serves me right, the best resonance frequency is in the 8-12 hertz range. The problem I've had with this is that Clearaudio doesn't provide a spec for compliance (they do use a spec called trackability, but I'm not sure what that is or if it converts to compliance somehow). I've been considering a Maestro or Virtuoso wood for my VPI Scoutmaster with JWM 9 arm but can't be sure I'm even in the ballpark. But from what I'm reading here, it appears to me that the Maestro is not a good match for the arm. It's not a good/bad arm or cartridge, it's just a compatibility issue. According to the tool, and info I've gathered, the vpi 10.5 has a mass of about 10.9 gm, the Maestro wood's mass is 7 gm. Therefore it's looking for cartridge compliance of between 9 and 22 µm/mN to hit that 8-12 hertz mark. I'd really be interested in finding out if anyone has calculated the compliance for these cartridges - it would at least give us a ballpark within which to work.

I've own this exact setup for about 3yrs and have been fairly happy with it but am now looking to change the cartridge. Has anyone tried the Soundsmith Zephyer Moving Iron Cart? Looks like it's designed to go with the VPI Arm.

I'm a late poster to this thread. But I recently purchased a VPI Classic 1 turntable with the stock JMW 10.5i SE tonearm AND the CA Maestro Wood cartridge, and I thought I would share my experiences. In response to Dainapoo's 12/31/10 post, Musical Surroundings, the US distributor of Clear Audio products, specifies a compliance rating of 15 for the Maestro Wood. Assuming that the effective mass of the JMW 10.5i SE tonearm ranges somewhere between 9 and 11 grams, the Vinyl Engine resonance calculator computes the cartridge/tonearm resonance of the Maestro/JMW combination to be 10 Hz at either extreme. So, resonance compatibility, at least by the numbers, does NOT pop out as problematic.

Next, I spent quite a bit of time fiddling with the set up of my cartridge and tonearm. As I mentioned in another OP, I used the VPI jig to adjust alignment and overhang. The VPI jig incoporporates the Baerwald (sp?) geomtry in its construction. I also own a small bubble level designed for tonearm setup.

I used the bubble level to accurately adjust azimuth by placing the level on the tonearm head perpendicular to the wand and carefully lowering the tonearm onto an old record and adjusting the azimuth by twisting the weight on the back of the arm. Frankly, it's a pain in the as* because everytime I fiddled with the weight, I screwed up VTF. Ultimately, I made both adjustments.

Now, a lot of discussion above was devoted to SRA/VTA. I appreciate that record manufacturing processes can affect optinmal SRA/VTA, and I suppose to some degree azimuth too. I agree that the best approach is to adjust tonearm height to acheive a horizontal level of the tonearm head while the stylus is sitting on a record. Or, from the perspective of the stylus, 90 degrees. The bubble level made the job easy. As with azimuth, I placed the level on the tonearm head, but this time aligned the level with the wand, and adjusted the tonearm height until I achieved the desired SRA/VTA. Later, I fine tuned the SRA/VTA in the manner described above to achieve by ear optimal SRA/VTA.

I went through this detailed discussion because maybe I don't understand all the techno-talk, or perhaps I have an extremely undiscriminating ear -- which has its advantages. But after all the fuss adjusting my JMW 10.5i SE tonearm and Maestro Wood cartridge, I'm 100% satisfied with the performance of my rig. Trackability is perfect; no groove junping. The Maestro could navigate the most complex and dynamic classical music tracks. Couldn't be happier.

So I guess I'm just a bit confused. What's the problem??? What am I missing?? Have any respected reviwers commented that the Maestro Wood is not compatible with the JMW uni-pivot??

Clearaudio MM's do not work well in wimpy unipivot arms - they push the arm around in azimuth too much. I sold my VPI 10.5 and bought a vintage Zeta Black. The difference was night and day.

Get an arm that is stiff in azimuth, like an SME, and it will handle any combination of cartridge weight and lateral compliance.