Available in cured resin, milled brass and now in milled austenitic stainless steel, these corrective shims allow you to correct your SRA and VTA at the headshell. It is important to optimize your SRA & VTA at the headshell and not by using the tonearm height because by changing the tonearm height you are changing multiple vector forces in addition to influencing the SRA & VTA. Further, since the average VTA correction is 7° to 9° (target of 20° maximum or 18° optimal), no tonearm could accommodate this correction in any case. 

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It is important to avoid more correction than the cartridge body can handle. Many bodies cannot handle more than 3°-5°. If you are unsure of what your cartridge can handle, contact us to discuss. 

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The milled brass or austenitic stainless steel is preferred on high performance tonearms and cartridges. Expect to add between 6g to 7.5g to accommodate these shims. You will need to introduce about 5x this figure in effective counterweight mass by either sliding your counterweight away from the tonearm pivot or adding more/larger counterweight.  

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Choose from +3° to -10° correction in 1° increments. Minus sign indicates angular correction to cartridge that would occur if you LOWERED the arm height. This is the direction over 95% of cartridge owners will need to go as the industry is making their VTA far too high compared to how lacquers are cut.

 

See related blog post HERE. See our video on VTA and the High End Munich Expert Panel discussion on the VIDEO PAGE.

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Opinions among those who have listened to the cured resin shim versus the metal shims are universally in favor of the performance impact of the metal shims. One owner writes:

Well, [compared to the cured resin shim] it sounds as if I upgraded my Hana Umami Blue!!  More definition from all frequencies! Better sound stage... Little subtleties where instruments came out clearer with more definition too. Kinda like I just upgraded the cartridge! You were right, definitely worth it to go brass! I’ll have to listen to all my vinyl, again, to hear what I’ve been missing!! - Erick P., MI

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Clients who have made the move from the brass shim to the austenitic stainless steel shim consistently report the same results: improved overall clarity, better imaging, "cleaner" high frequencies and better sense of overall realism to the musical experience.