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In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: Vinyl Ceremonies: Repeatable VTA

Post Subject: "Bad" LabelsPosted by Paul S on: 4/20/2009

Moving to the next obsessive step, I traded my cheap-o dial gauge for a regular (cheap-o) micrometer, and I added some magnifying glasses and a calculator, to try to plot a reliable relative indicator I can use with my existing means of adjustment. Due to the "C' shape of the micrometer's" calipers (as opposed to the dial gauge's fully-parallel caliper edges), I am now (finally...) measuring the records on their sound tracks rather than at their "rims", and I am getting readings within .0001 accuracy.

No, I don't need to get within .0001 to set my VTA. But it is right nice to know the exact thickness of the disc where the stylus actually tracks as opposed to using the rim thickness as the reference point. For one thing, it turns out that the difference between the edge and the tracked "field" is not fixed -- at all. Some records with a fairly thick rim are thin as far as VTA is concerned, and some records hardly differ from their tracked field to their (maximum) rim thickness. Another thing is that a record's thickness generally varies across its tracks, from its outside track to its inside track (!); however, the "field" measurement I am taking now is obviously "good enough", across the LP, while using the rim measurement sometimes found me wanting to make adjustment during play (and screw that!).

An interesting thing came out of the most recent sessions, which included several DGGs. Using my new technique, several of these discs turned out to be a lot thinner, practically speaking, than I ever imagined. Of course, this means that I have had my VTA set too shallow on these LPs for -- decades. So, would you wonder if they generally tended to sound steely! Now, perhaps I should re-think mocking some of the many "Gran Prix du Disque" awards DGG has won?

I have not yet done a thorough-going investigation of all my "bad sounding" labels, per se, to see if some of them can still benefit from a more careful, re-thought VTA; but I'm guessing that more than a few of these "bad" LPs will be exonerated before I'm done checking through my collection.

For those who have just recently joined this weird tale, I have already said that VTA as an aurally-critical issue is fairly new to me. In other words, it never really bothered me this much for many years gone by. However, do not shed tears for me now. Yes, the days of "let it rip" are gone, and likely they are gone forever. But it turns out that I still have an acceptable margin of error/level of comfort with respect to VTA now, as long as I start out with a good, meaningful measurement to begin with.

I don't remember if I have mentioned it before, but so far record thickness has varied by a factor of >2, from the thinnest to the thickest, and they all seem to be +/- OK with the usual (23 degree?) tracking angle. In truth, I don't know what I would do if this last were not the case.

Paul S

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