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Setting VTA on a new Shelter 901?

I'm trying to dial in a new Shelter 901, knowing I face several dozen hours of break-in before I ought to be too critical.

It's in an SME IV.vi arm on a SOTA Star. The arm has a VTA adjustment dial/rod...but it's not that easy to move, up or downward. Both ways requires loosening some base screws, etc. Not precisely repeatable, either. Nevermind that, my question is...

What's a good "geometry" ballpark to begin VTA tweaking...
cartridge bottom parallel to record? Slightly down at the back? Somebody on Audiogon mentioned slightly down at the front, but that sounds (and looks, in my mind's eye) very scary. But, so far, what do I know?

The cartridge is very, very slightly down in the rear right now, about 1-2° I'd say. Bass seems mostly controlled, but load...treble (strings) are very bright...vocals I'm familiar with seem pretty about right...so far, nothing I'd call warmth. That's some break-up that happens on crescendos...sounds like eggs frying ...seems more like electronic distortion ugliness that mistracking.

Thanks for any help and ideas.

Noel
128x128nnauber
futterman
11 posts
 
Hello, I have same table and arm with a helikon cartridge. My cartridge took at least 60 hours to break in. I seriously thought about selling it during this period it sounded so bad, take your time. I would set the arm so that the cartridge is level with the record. You can also play with the fluid damper setting ,I found this made a big difference, unfortunately you will find almost every record requires a different setting to sound its best.I would let the cartridge break in before you start to pull your hair out.I also found that the sound of the SOTA table depends a great deal on what type of surface it is sitting on. In my system I have tried mine on concrete, metal,granite but it sounds by far its best sitting on 1X4 soft wood with tip toes.
thsalmon
348 posts
 
How can you possibly tell that the back is down only one to two degrees? Such discrimination is impossible with the naked eye and likely at the limits of tolerance with even the most advanced turntable setup tools. I hope this thread is a joke.
nnauber's avatar
nnauber OP
4 posts
 
Thsalmon,
Some time ago, I forget what for, I made a protractor (just several accurate fine lines of acute angles from 0° to about 10°) on a sheet of clear plastic. I lower the stylus onto a record (not playing) and then lay the base line (0°) of my protractor on the record, slide it till one of the lines match and note the angle of the cartridge.
It's really pretty easy to be very precise.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
The breakup on crescendos sounds like existing record wear from previous mistracking damage - electrical input overloading distortion would be very unlikely, for either a phonostage or a preamp partnered with one - but make sure you're not tracking at too light a VTF if your records are known to be in great shape. Anything near horizontal (I'm talking about the 'arm) should track properly with the correct VTF applied on the new cart. Give it around 50 hours before getting concerned about the tonal balance. When it is broken in, look into optimizing the loading impedance if you haven't already done so, and I wouldn't worry too much about fussing with the VTA until then either.
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