VTA and HTA overhang

If your read Fremers article a few months back in Stereophile he emphasizes that the Rake Angle is more crucial to the playback of lps. I recently had mine adjusted and I will attest that Fremer is correct. I attended the Music Matters gathering at Audio Alternative in Fort Collins he refers to in this months Analog Corner. And he touched on this subject that night as well. It makes perfect sense to me that we strive to approach the groove with our stylus at the same angle as it was cut or scribed when the orginal stamper was made. So I would suggest, and this is only intended as food for thought, that you look into that setting as your reference point and adjust from there. If you are in Colorado or nearby give Rick at Audio Alternative.com a call and make an appointment. He has mine TT and Cart working at peak performance.

Theo, I think you are referring to an SRA of 92 degrees. I have met MF and listened to him discuss this topic and it makes sense to me and I have viewed my stylus through a USB microscope and tried to calculate the angle. I do my final adjustment my ear.

My point is that I was surprise by how much the overhang changed when I adjusted my VTA/SRA by lifting the back of my arm. I have settled on one height and corresponding SRA angle and leave it at that. I don't plan to adjust my VTA for each LP.

My questions is really for all of those analog guys who purport to adjust THEIR VTA depending on which LP they have spinning on their platters. I am wondering if when they raise or lower their VTA (on the Graham, Tri Planar, Durand, whichever arm makes this easy) they are taking into account the resulting change in HTA or overhang. The cartridge's alignment changes with changes in VTA and I'm not aware of audiophiles realigning their cartridges with each change in VTA, that is with each LP.

Thanks for the suggestion to contact Rick, but I'm all set with alignment and settings.

Why would the overhang change when you adjust the VTA? It seems to me the only other setting that should be affected is the SRA.

Certainly no offense taken, Theo.

Let me try to explain my point again. Here's my thinking: Imagine that the following three points form a triangle as viewed from the side. The first point is center of the arm tube intersecting the arm bearing point or line. The second point is the stylus tip. The third point is at the center of the arm tower at the plane of the record. Now imagine raising the VTA. Point #1 moves up. This pulls point #2, the stylus tip, slightly in toward point #3. An extremely short arm tube helps to illustrate the figure. The fact that the stylus tip moves relative to point #3 means that overhang changes as VTA changes.

If viewed from above, the stylus tip is now inside the original arc that the stylus traced across the LP. Or if it were possible to swing the arm all the way in toward the center of the LP, the stylus's relative location to the spindle changes as VTA changes. This is overhang, or Horizontal Tracking Angle (HTA).

I confirmed this effect tonight by observing the relationship between my stylus tip and the arc on my MINT LP protractor as I raised and lowered my VTA. When I increased (raised) VTA, my stylus tip moved inside the arc (more at the outer groove). When I decreased (lowered) VTA, my stylus tip moved outside the arc (again more at the outer grooves than at the inner grooves).

Now, I'm talking specifically about VTA. I recognize the importance of trying to match the SRA to the original cutting angle. Fremer recommends 92 as the closest compromise for the most LPs. I also understand that altering VTA effects SRA. I also agree that HTA which I think you refer to as Tracking Angle may not be as important as setting the correct SRA.

For the purposes of this discussion, I'm only looking at the relationship between VTA and HTA.

I'm just trying to make the point that as one adjusts VTA, overhang changes. This effects cartridge alignment and is quite audible. The closer my stylus is to the arc traced on my protractor, the more information my stylus extracts from the grooves and the less distortion there is.

Once the arm and cartridge are properly aligned, all should be fine. I'm just wondering what if anything those who adjust SRA by lifting or lowering their arms for each LP do to address the change in overhang which results from the change in VTA. I hope this clarifies my original post and like you, I'm just trying to learn something.

As one who has set-up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tables/arms/cartridges, I can attest to the fact that as you change VTA/SRA, it will also change the overhang.

As Peter states above, as the back of the arm goes up, the tip of the stylus moves in. As the back of the arm goes down, the tip of the stylus moves out.

That's why if you make a change in one, you must recheck the other. Just like VTF will affect VTA/SRA.

I agree with Peter that if a user is changing the VTA/SRA for each record, they should also check/change the overhang.

I've always kind of thought that the changes one hears by adjusting the VTA/SRA, might be due to the overhang change as much as the change to the VTA/SRA? Just my take...