VTA Adjustment

Rob, I was not aware that there is supposed to be a rubber bumper for the underside of the tonearm. Thank for letting me know.

The tone arm itself is less important it is the cartridge stylus rake that is important. With that said all things being equal the tone arm should be parallel or close to it when your cartridge is parallel as far as I am aware.

Joel, I think I found the "proper" approach to this problem. Besides the ability to raise or lower the entire platform (including the cueing mechanism), which leads to the problem because the cueing mechanism can't lift the now parallel to the record tonearm, one can also just lower and raise the platform the cueing mechanism is installed on. Not the cueing lever, the platform. I indicated the screw for that in the attached image. In my case, there was just enough room to raise the platform without inhibiting the free movement of the tomearm on its pivot. Now the tonearm is parallel and I have enough lift to raise the stylus off the record. Soundwise, it makes a world a difference. Less harsh, more balanced, and warmer without losing detail.

Doing it this way, avoided the need for putting something on the cueing lever rest.

Good. Glad you had enough adjustment on the platform, I didn't even think about that portion of it.

And how do I do that?

I think the cueing lever is already in the highest possible position.