Bent Cant, Can't get azimuth right. Does it matter

Update:

Benz sent me out a new cartridge, straight as an arrow. I installed it today, and there was a lot of "missing" information in the right channel with the bent cart. I am glad I sent it back, thanks. Now I have to wait for it to break-in again.

With any cartridge featuring a "bent" or "off-line" cantilever one should always remember that it is the cantilever (and of course ultimately the polished area of the stylus in position towards the grooved walls of the record...) that has to be aligned - NOT the cartridge body.
In an ideal world the outer lines of the cartridge body are absolutely parallel (or 90 degrees....) to the cantilever and can help to align precisely - but they are only an optical support for alignment.
Its never the carts body that has to be aligned.

Phaser and Dertonarm: Aligning the cantilever/stylus isn't the only parameter that needs some attention. If the cantilever is askew enough that it isn't aligned optimally within the cartridge generator then sound quality will suffer. The cantilever/stylus/groove AND the cantilever/cartridge body/generator need to be in alignment. There is probably a range of cantilever alignment within the cartridge that is acceptable but if the cantilever appears to be that far off then I consider the cartridge defective.

As Raul points out, if consumers accept poor quality construction then it isn't just the consumer that suffers. Manufacturers need to know of defective products so they can maintain quality standards. Obviously Benz-Micro agreed with you, Hanaleimike, since they replaced the cartridge.

Tom

Hi Tketcham,
I do agree completely. I had a case of a 'misaligned' cantilever, and the manufacturer conceded that the cart has an "VTA error" (I was riding VERY low from the onset).
BUT as you pointed out, this also had a very detrimental effect on the internal alignment, with the result that the cart when it was measured with test record and oscilloscope performed very badly.

How such product gets past the quality assurance of a respectable and renown manufacturer is telling not a good story in deed. It is also a reflection on customers that are prepared to pay thousands of $$$ for a faulty product -- and don't query it.
In my case it took 4 month! but it was eventually replaced with a new correctly aligned cart.

Greetings,

Tketcham, there are two parameters in a given MC cartridge that need to be aligned when mounted in a given tonearm:

1) the position of the stylus' polished area in relation to the cutting angle of the groove walls.

2) the position of the coils (attached to the cantilever) in the designed center of the magnet field.

The first is a matter of azimuth, VTA and geometry of the given tonearm.
This parameter most certainly varies with different records (different cutting angles, different record thickness) as the groove-compliant VTA is depending on the record under track and the angle that record's matrix was cut with.

The second point is a matter of VTF (and to some degree and in some cartridges a matter of "break-in" - i.e.: of time....).
However- there is only ONE optimal VTF when the cantilever (and thus the coils... ) is positioned in the absolute center of the magnetic field.
It may ever so slightly vary with time (suspension giving slowly in or ambient temperature varies), but it is constant during the "healthy live-span" of a cartridge and under constant ambience conditions.
There may be 2-4 positions of a cantilever inside a given cartridge where one may thinks the alignment is "o.k." - but in reality as in theory there is only one optimal position.
D.