Recently I “spoke” with @ChrisBerlin about his Ortofon cadenza black installed on a his p10 turntable. Every time I auditioned the cadenza I felt in love however I’m really concerned about adjusting the VTA on the p 10 arms adding spacers. I would like to have opinions on it
Personal view: I would not go anywhere near spacers, even if I thought that the cartridge in question is fantastic. Do you want to risk shattering the brace by overtightening. Do you want to worry that you have undertightened?
…and in any case, when I had P9 (no brace), a spacer did not improve the sound.
When I bought my Planar 8, I asked my dealer to fit my AT-OC9 ML/II which is taller than a Rega cartridge. I took his advice which was to fit Rega’s 2mm stainless steel three hole spacer. Very happy with the sound.
What I can’t quite get my head round is that, despite frowning on the use of spacers themselves in the Rega book, they are able to supply spacers for the job of adjusting VTA!
(Obviously if I ever buy a Rega cartridge, I will ask for the spacer to be removed.)
C.
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I happily fitted spacers on my RP6 with the stainless brace, but personally, I’d be rather twitchy about fitting spacers on a P10 due to the ceramic brace - perhaps ask your nearest Rega dealer for guidance?
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I use spacers with my RP10, not P10. The RP10 has got an magnesium brace on top, so that you can easily handle with spacers. With the ceramic brace on the P10 it is another story and I would also be afraid of shattering the brace.
The connection between the tonearm and bearing is very stiff, even with spacers.
Chris, ceramic brace is my concern because if I will move to rega it is a p10.
Not sure why the concern with stainless steel spacers since the base of the RB3000 tonearm is actually stainless steel. The factory torque setting is 0.4Nm, which is slightly over finger tight, I wouldn’t hesitate to try up to .8Nm, but that’s just me.
Is that the torque at the arm base-ceramic brace interface?
Yes
Although those Ortofon cartridges can be fantastic, I’d choose another turntable for them.
I’m a big Rega fan and would never fit spacers myself.
In my world any amateurish bodging (subplatter, counterweight, spacers, ruin bearings etc) reduce sales value.
Rega sell spacers because some people believe they want them, why not take part of this market ?
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Rega sell spacers because there’s no easy way to level your non-Rega cart of choice without using them!
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There is no harm to using spacers.
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Mostly there’s no need for spacers unless user wish to satisfy his/her eyesight.
Rega know what they are doing.
I used a Cadenza Red with my RP8 for many years without adjusting the VTA. It sounded very good indeed. You could try a spacer but would probably get the dealer to fit it.
Interesting point. Simply put, there is bound to be a loss in rigidity/an increase in the number of interfaces (? how much this changes the sound). This needs to be set against the effect of levelling (which Rega claim to be dubious). I guess that you can only find out by trying the experiment…in the case of the P10, with its associated risk
That statement may be true in the realm of theory, but practically speaking there are no significant outside forces at play that would cause a loss or rigidity with the spacers torqued down, IMO. What Rega says is that they don’t want to make a height adjustable tonearm as it would loose rigidity, but I don’t think they have ever said that the spacers will cause loss of rigidity. I could be wrong of course, but that is my understanding.
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You could be right on the specifics of this, but is so it would contradics Rega’s advising against the use of spacers.
What Rega says is that VTA doesn’t make an audible difference, an unless the rear of the cartridge is dragging then there is no need for spacers, but I don’t think they have said that there is a negative effect on utilizing spacers. If they have, then by all means please enlighten me, I haven’t researched the subject that thoroughly and could be mistaken.
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It’s difficult for me to remembwr the precise language, but my lasting impresion is of advice to avoid spacers.