Cartridge compatibility

Hi everyone. New member/ first post here.
I’ve just purchased a Rega Planar 3 with no cart, to which I want to mount a AT VM540ML. There are those who’ve made much ado regarding the sensitivity of microline stylii to VTA, and those who seem to shrug it off as so much obsessing over triviality. Should I purchase shims? Is this even a good match? The normally premounted Elys 2 is 0.3 inches taller than the AT cart.
Please discuss, and thank you.

 

Mount it up with no shims and see if you've got something close to parallel to the LP. If it's tail up, check out the sound anyway. Nice cart. Welcome.

 

Welcome.
The Elys 2 has a spec of 14mm height. The AT540ML has a spec of 17.3mm height. So something doesn't fit here.
A 3.3mm difference at the cartridge mounting is about roughly 1.65 degree difference where the stylus meets the record, so this is something to pin down (if my rusty math is good enough).

 

Thanks for the reply, JohnO. I may be missing something, but my reading tells me the Elys 2 is 1 inch high. The AT cart is indeed 17.3 mm high, which is approx. 0.7 inches. But your response strikes at a point I was making. 1.65 degrees doesn’t seem like much, even given that with VTA it may not take much. Do you think it would matter?

 

It'll work and sound good without shims. It'll work and sound better with about 2mm of shims. If you don't want to spend a small chunk of change on purpose made, machined spacers or remove the arm, then just look for some flat washers that will fit over the screws. You just lift out the screws, insert the washers under the arm and reinsert the screws through them - done. Just be sure that you select VERY flat washers, as close to a proper machined surface as possible, so that they will stack without any tilt. That way all stacks will be equal and level. Just get enough to reach the level of height that you want. That should only set you back a dollar or two. You can only go somewhere around 3mm, I believe, without also shimming the dust cover hinges or edges as you will run out of headroom at some point under the lid for the counterweight. I have never shimmed an arm more than 4mm, and typically find that most carts sound better with the arm just a touch lower than level, if not just level. I usually hear less surface noise that way, and if a cart is on the bright side, it'll warm it up also. So 1mm is nothing to worry about if that puts your arm on the low side. But 2mm - 3mm, I'd want to get closer to level for best performance.
-Bill

 

A google search of " all rega cartridges "14mm" " brings up several references to the 14mm, even though I cannot find that on the Rega site. And its picture on the Rega site looks more like 14mm than 1 inch to me.

I would just try the AT540ML, and if it sounds good, and I bet it will, you're done. The AT540ML is a great cart and a great stylus. You can fool around with shims later if you want to try. You can try shims just cut from paper, and any number of layers of those, before investing in "real" shims.

 

Right you are KT-88 about the levelness of the washers. The typical stamped washer will not do the job, and here's why: any slight variation in thickness, a thinner side of the washer introduces much greater error on the cartridge /stylus rake angle. So the chances are the cartridge would be tilting forward or aft, which defeats the purpose of shimming.

So, a better shim would be a full shim. I could suggest a hobby shop to see if they have plastic stock on varying thicknesses, (ie: .050 inches) then cut to the size of the cartridge body. We would of course cut the shim to fit between the screws -or- getting super fancy cut the shims with holes drilled on a laser cutter or at least a drill press. The full shim will maintain cartridge parallel to the headshell mounting surface, and guarantee our alignment objective.

 

Well, making a spacer would be a no-go for me. Way easier to just buy one and really the time saved would make it just as cost effective and results are going to be better. If I'm going to make a quick and easy swap, it's going to be washers, but yeah, I inspect a lot of them before settling on the few that will get used. They just need to stack uniformly flat and be of a uniform thickness. Most common, zinc plated, steel washers are stamped really poorly, so you do have to find brass or stainless and then get picky with those individually. I have had good success doing so and it is practically free.
-Bill

 

Right! If the AT is taller than the Rega cart, the OP won't be needing any shims. He might even be "tail down" with the AT. Raising the tonearm might be in order. I'm sure there are plenty of happy Rega/AT owners out there though

 

Check this out> New Planar 3 with audio Technica AT 540ML mm cart- Vinyl Engine