I heard magic today!!I am thrilled for you and for me. For me that you were not too pissed off at my dismissive post above. I suspect that Dave of Intactaudio is right about what went wrong with your previous attempt at using an SUT but we still have no insight as to what went wrong with all of your previous attempts to get good sound. The alignment only accounts for the very last 5-10% and as I have told you many times-most times you can slam your cartridge all the way forward and as long as you have VTF, azimuth, and SRA correct, you will get very good sound. So forgive me if I doubt that the alignment software is what got you over the hurdle.
I set up Ikeda Kai with MC26L, VPS100 and used smartractor and Analogmagik to setup the cartridge.
It was pure magic.
The best setup I heard so far!! (my sound memory is not that great!!)
I would like to thank @fsonicsmith for letting me listen to his system which encouraged me to go for that magic.
I continue to think that your Cary preamp must be part of your previous problems. I continue to think that the IC's from phono stage to phono pre must be top-tier. You may be getting great sound now but how will you be feeling about the sound two months from now with continued listening?
At the level of price you are working with it is a shame not to use component synergy to your advantage rather than working against it.
But truly, I am still thrilled for you that your efforts have finally begun to pay off.