I noticed there's a topic on this already, but maybe more out there are in the process of starting anew as I am, and getting hands on the Amadeus for the first time, and a few might not have had enough, so here's to it.
When using my former set-up, a Clearaudio Unify 9" unipivot along with a Clearaudio MM Alpha cartridge, I'd fix carefully tracking weight, azimuth and tracking angle and then set up VTA for EACH record I'd spin.
Yes, right.
But it got to be second nature and what it did to the performance of each side was fundamental. I mean it. However, the WTA threw it all in the air and mixed it into a totally different set of references. The full freedom the WT affords the cartridge body renders minutely precise VTA into a carefree concern. It's much easier to set tracking pressure with its simple round weight and the azimuth adjustment on the fly is a joy. Love it. However, ignore the damping ratio and you're missing quite a lot, I believe.
I'm playing with extremes to see what happens, using a Clearaudio Virtuoso MM (long cantilever, recommended 2,2 gram tracking force, so lots of energy sent to the arm) and it's been like this: too much into the cup, aggressive mids with squashed, leaden bass and muffled highs, voices with no expression.
Too little damping produces aggressive mids with shrill highs and disjointed, empty bass, voices tiresome and thin. Between these extremes I got some of the most infectious performances out of a piece of plastic I ever did after a few years with this hobby.
What do you say?
