Cartridge Opinions - Sorry

Dear @kennyc :  ""  it appears you’re confusing cartridge cantilever with tonearm. " 

how is that, can you explain it?

"  Second, I’m referring to manufacturing inconsistencies whose point you appear to miss. ""

Why?, as I said almost any one but new comers knows how to make the TT/LP/cartridge/set up on differents alignment parameters: P2S distance, off-set angle, overhang, VTF, VTA/SRA, Azymuth, cartridge loading, TT and tonearm leveled, tonearm mounting in TT, TT plattforms, TT mats, clamps and the like.

You posted too:

"""   “optimum” cartridge setup by others is rare. When you think about a stylus in the groove, is a very minuscule stylus/diamond tilt audible? Absolutely! ""

is " rare " for you and nothing else.

"" What complicates setup is that less than perfect stylus to cantilever mating is common, and occasionally the cantilever is less than perfectly mounted. Most will align using the cartridge body which doesn’t address this less than perfect mating/mounting. """

today all but new comers knows that is not the cartridge body whom must aligned in the protractor.

What is what you want to teach/show or share in this thread that no other true analog audiophile knows?

Your answer appreciated.

R.

Linn seems to think that the cartridge manufacturer should have exacting manufacturing tolerances to make azimuth errors irrelevant.

They are 100% correct. Too bad actual cartridges don't hold up to this ideal.

@rauliruegas
You could have simply Googled “turntable cartridge cantilever” then look at the illustrations/pics, but I’ll try to explain in words.
Generally, turntable cartridge is constructed with body (shell), coils, magnets, suspension (for cantilever), cantilever, stylus (diamond), and I guess adhesive. The cantilever is that stick on which the stylus (diamond) is attached with some sort of adhesive. 
The tonearm is what you attach the cartridge to on one side, the turntable to the other. Google “turntable tonearm”.

You’re still missing the point of manufacturing inconsistencies. 99.99..% of any manufacturing is NOT 100% consistently accurate- there’s always some variations. While computer tolerances can be controlled to get tighter/better tolerances (accuracy), one can never achieve a consistent 100%. This is common manufacturing knowledge. Also, it’s also common knowledge that computer controlled manufacturing is significantly more accurate that manual (by hand) manufacturing.

Imagine that a seasoned cartridge artisan is looking under a microscope fixing some adhesive (like a dab of glue), then placing the stylus (diamond) on top of the glue. Construction under a microscope is no easy task. The stylus is NOT mounted a consistent 90 degrees front to back AND side to side, there’s always some minute variation. Also, the stylus is NOT mounted perfectly parallel to the cartridge body and there are some left/right variations. With a large enough cartridge sample and a microscope, you can easily see these variations.

Google “turntable cartridge stylus microscope pics” - maybe this will help you to realize stylus to cantilever mounting can easily be less than perfect.
If you still don’t understand this, I can’t help you.

So, are these cartridge construction inconsistencies audible? Yes. These teeny tiny electrical signals are being amplified many times to line level (so a preamplifier can use) then multiplied many times again (amplifier) before hitting your speakers. The more transparent your system, the easier to hear these differences.

Are these cartridge construction inconsistencies important? That’s a subjective judgement question. As mentioned before, you can get good to great sound using the tools/methodologies mentioned, and for some/most that may be good enough.

But to “optimize” (get the very best sound) you have to get your specific cartridge’s “stylus” to be “perfectly” parallel to the groove, “perfectly” perpendicular 90 degrees from the front, and 92 degrees from the side.

When using a cartridge protractor you’re indexing (comparing) to either the cartridge body or the cartridge cantilever. This method “assumes” that the stylus is perfectly mounted parallel to the body/cantilever which is not the case because of manufacturing variations. It may be “good enough” but not “optimal”.

I’m not arguing that “P2S distance, off-set angle, overhang, VTF, VTA/SRA, Azymuth...”, is not important- it all matters. But if you want to “optimize”, you’ll have to spend considerable time/effort to go further.

Cartridge “optimization” is typically not known/performed by most, but for seasoned audio professionals like dealers, and seasoned audiophiles especially with Uber systems, or audiophiles trying to maximize performance, this is fairly common knowledge.

How about the Audio Technica ART7?
It's $1200...

Dear @kennyc : All of us know that the builded cartridges on the cantilever/stylus tip atached are not 100% perfect and from several years now that microscpic video you mentioned was already see it.

What you maybe don’t take in count is that the stylus tip in a pivoted tonearm even if it’s aligned " cartridge’s “stylus” to be “perfectly” parallel to the groove, “perfectly” perpendicular 90 degrees from the front, and 92 degrees from the side. "" the stylus tip can’t rides the groove modulations with precission due to the tracking error and only at null points can do it but even that and at microscopic levels the stylus tip always is jumping during the groove modulations tracking task.

So what are you trying to share?, all what you posted is know but audiophiles.

We have to align the cartridge with the higher accuracy levels we can and that’s all we can do it.

In the other side the several any kind of distortions/noises/resonances developed trough the cartridge tracking inside the cartridge it self and along the ones developed by the tonearm and TT as the feedback from there and from the LP surface into the cartridge and the fact that the stylus tip can’t pick up all the recorded information in those LP grooves makes that you can’t discern if what you are listening is because you have a " problem " with that 92 or that 90 degrees or because all those distorions developed during playing.

There are and exist a lot of issues on what we are listening trhough our analog rig.

In the other side the LP it self comes with several imperfections that add more trouble in our " perfect " alignments and each LP comes with different imperfections even in the same title.

So what do you want to do with all those? to make an alignment correction at each single LP or even at each track on each LP?

Maybe that could be your target but certainly not mine.

Now, you said that if I don't understand then you can explain me, well I need an explanation ( I think you are talking of your first hand experiences . ):

How do you mantain exactly those 90 degrees ( which groove do you choice to make the alignment and why and where in the LP surface and with which LP. ? ) and 92 degress at each single groove because I understand that the cartridge has a suspension/compliance mechanism and all those imperfections I talked about?

R.