Vinyl Asylum Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

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Ever buy a set of tires?

Posted by Spinner (A) on September 30, 2007 at 12:33:23

In Reply to: Explain VTA? posted by bluelobster on September 30, 2007 at 07:09:49:

What's the first thing the dealer says to do? Get them aligned! Why? Because only by aligning the tires so they track the road with as little resistance as possible can you get the best gas milage, handling, etc. Making the tires sit straight in relation to the car body ( they call it caster, camber, toe-in and toe-out ) also prevents uneven or excessive tire wear.

Now, picture that stylus in the groove. In order to get the best response from the ridges in the vinyl, the sides of the diamond should be as perfectly perpendicular as possible. Why? To prevent the effects that improper raking will present ( tilted too far inward or too far forward ) as it vibrates. The amount of improper groove contact would appear very small when the VTA is set wrong, but at the point of contact with the groove, the problem is control and the most efficient tranference of the sound energy.

The enemy here, is heat. Like your tire alignment, the stylus that is 'raked' properly runs cooler. At the point of proper VTA, the sound blossoms, sound-staging is widest, dynamics increase, tracking is easiest and vinyl wear is at it's lowest all because the stylus is making the least vertical contact with the groove wall- resulting in the least amount of generated heat.

Bottom line: New tires? Get that alignment done. Stylus VTA? Adjust it until you hit that sweet-spot that every cartridge has. It's there, trust me. And when found, don't be too hard on yourself for not working the problem sooner. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

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