be parallel to the record surface with the needle in the groove. Just unscrew the VTA-set screw (f) while supporting the arm with one hand, then slide the shaft (c) up or down until the armwand appears about parallel to the record with the �needle in the groove�. The fine adjustment has to be carried out using your ears. Raise or lower the arm by small increments until you have reached a position that combines precise placement of images with an effortless delivery of dynamic contrasts. Sibilants should come from the same position in space as the singer�s body. 4.5) Antiskating To compensate for the skating force turn the antiskating-adjustment-disc (a) counterclockwise to increase force (initially, several turns might be required!) and clockwise to reduce it. A good compromise will be achieved once mistracking occurs in both channels simultaneously while playing the tracking ability test tracks on the ORTOFON test record(0002 or 0003). In case you have no access to any such test record just put the diamond on the space between the leadout grooves (or a "blank� record, i.e. Cardas sweeper record) and adjust antiskating until the arm/cartridge combo wanders slowly towards the center of the record. From then on, use your ears... 4.6) Adjusting the gap between the magnets With a decent light source placed behind your record player it is easy to make out (and control) the gap between the magnets which facilitates friction-free movement of the tonearm. The distance between the magnets determines the effectiveness of damping both tonearm/cartridge resonance and "parasitic� energy, generated by the cartridge or the turntable. The smaller the gap the higher the damping and vice versa. The gap between the magnets is altered by first inserting a 1.5mm Allen key into the set screw that is sitting in the middle of disc (a). Once your Allen key caught the screw hold it steady while turning the disc clockwise to widen the gap or counterclockwise to close it. This sounds a lot more difficult than what it is.. The gap should be about 0.3mm wide, enough to allow for a common business card to be slid in without to much resistance. If the magnets were to touch each other during play the resulting friction would cause the cartridge to skip. The suspension thread used has an extremely high tensile strength, a very hard surface and will not deteriorate over time. It does stretch (break in) though over a period of no more than two weeks. Once it has set, only under extreme conditions (very high temperatures + high humidity) can the thread exhibit a tendency to "give� a little more. So check the gap after a summer thunder storm (no more stretching after three of those).. 4.7) Silicon damping or not The arm features the option to use silicon oil(i.e.SME2013) to dampen the tonearm resonance � predominantly in the axis of the armwand � resulting in a reduction of the
