Vinyl Asylum

Posted by flood2 (A) on October 15, 2014 at 14:51:37

In Reply to: RE: Do You Have a Favorite Disk for Setting VTA/SRA? posted by Mel on October 14, 2014 at 08:30:24

You can't really optimise VTA, as that will vary from each side of the record as well as between records depending on when they were cut...
What you are doing is referencing your SRA.

After reading the following you will realise that if you have OCD (like me) then you have a headstart... :)

I designed a jig to simulate an 18mm cartridge with a very long flat base. The arm height is set to a "common" thickness of record - I made discs out of card (I have a range of thicknesses). Knowing the thickness of the chosen card, the arm height needs to be set only once.

I then measure the thickness of each and every record (I have made a set of reference LP sized shims to enable me to shim the record to match the reference to within 0.01mm over the entire range of possible record thickness from ultra thin 7"s to >2mm thick 200+g pressings) so that the arm height never needs to be touched and each record should now be consistent for the desired SRA.

I should add that yes, I do have one LP I use as a sanity check. Sibilance is very good for optimising the SRA particularly on the inner grooves.
Regards Anthony

"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats