Default VTA on Fluance RT85 with Ortofon 2M Blue way off

[jeffT_pnw]

I tested the VTA on the Fluance RT85 tonearm with the default Ortofon 2m Blue cartridge and it is very tail high - roughly 5-6mm high. I added a 3mm shim between the headshell and cartridge as well as a 3mm platter mat to get the tonearm & headshell parallel to the record.

It sounds much better now.
I hope this helps other Fluance RT85 owners.

 

[homebrew]

5-6mm? Is that the way it came from the factory?

 

[jeffT_pnw]

5-6mm? Is that the way it came from the factory?

Yes it is!

 

[tabarddn51]

Hi, That seems a liitle large, but should not be a problem as your cart is an Elliptical stylus. Conical & Elliptical carts a basically non sensitive to VTA angle. Carts can vary by as much as 6mm in depth, just compare your Blue to Ortofon's Cadenza Blue.
This is one of the problems that can happens when the arm does not have adjustable height.

Cheers

 

[jeffT_pnw]

A bit of a follow-up and correction to the original post..
The Fluance stock headshell is not parallel to the tonearm (the body of the headshell - not the front slant). There is a slight downward angle to the headshell. It takes 5mm correction to get the Fluance headshell parallel to the record but only 3mm to get the tonearm parallel to the record. I discovered this when switching to an Ortofon headshell. You can see the 3mm blue platter in the pic below. The spacers above the Denon 103 are needed to make it the same height as the Ortofon 2m blue.

 

[tabarddn51]

Hi, I hope they are metal spacers, as your arm is to light for the 103 to perform at it's optimum. The 103 need a Heave Eff Mass arm, so metal spacers will definetly help. Also like Elliptcal styli, the Conical stylus of the 103, does not need to be parallel. But some people, me included believe it sound best with the tone slightly downwards to the rear.

Cheers