DaVinci tonearm and azymuth

Thom is correct. Optimizing azimuth for any particular cartridge requires a MUCH finer adjustment than 0.5 degree, at least 10X finer I'd say. I don't believe any set of differential shims you could easily buy would provide the necessary precision, except by dumb luck.

Despair not. As Thom suggested, rather than inserting shims beneath each cartridge screw, try running one skinny shim longitudinally down the center of the cartridge. A ~2mm wide strip of thin tape works well.

Adjusting the mounting screws "rocks" the cartridge L or R as needed, and provides an almost infinitely small range of adjustments. (If your cartridge is really off, use two layers of tape.)

Credit to Wally Malewicz. You can see a photo here. This works.

Dear Jazzgene, The primary objective in adjusting azimuth, if you are using electrical criteria and based on my reading of two long treatises on the subject (see below), is to get the best possible numbers for each channel, but not necessarily to expect that the crosstalk will be EQUAL in both channels. So, if the cartridge in question gives -38db and -29db, respectively for the two channels, these in fact are very good numbers based on the 4 or 5 cartridges I personally have measured using the Signet Cartridge Analyzer and a test LP using the 1kHz test tone. It may well be that soundstaging is very good at this setting. However, with a little tweaking of azimuth, you may be able to get a bit less crosstalk in the channel that reads -29db, and this may result in a little more crosstalk in the other channel, which will bring them closer to equal, but equal is not the goal. (In fact, crosstalk might go either way in the "good" channel if you adjust the "less good" channel to get a better number.) In the end, after you make an adjustment based on electrical measurements, you have to listen and decide for yourself what compromise is best. If you go to Vinyl Asylum, do a search on "azimuth" and look for the long posts by Brian Kearns and Victor Khomenko, respectively. Those two guys are my gurus on this subject.

Dear Psag: +++++ " Would appreciate it if anyone could comment on the pros and cons of this design decision. " +++++

IMHO there is no single pro about. From a stand point of tonearm design one main tonearm target is to permit/accept the right cartridge set-up, a today tonearm that don't permit the right cartridge set-up can't honor the tonearm name.
All this tonearm customers/owners could think that they are hearing almost the best of the cartridges they mount on that tonearm but the reality is that they are far away from what is each one real quality cartridge performance in that tonearm.

IMHO there is no valid excuse to design a tonearm with out azymuth adjustment and I belive this does not matters if the tonearm price is low or high: it is by design principle, period.

The azymuth tonearm control subject is something like a car where you can drive it if you never want to turn to the right ( because in that car you can't. ), no one buy a car that only turn around the left!!!! ( a dramatization. )

I hate to talk about this kind of topics because IMHO there is ( one way or the other ) a total scorn to the un-knoledge customer and due to this non customer know-how an audio item designer/builder ( like that tonearm in this case ) makes money against the true audio customer necessities ( what we need. ), again: no excuse for that especially at that price!!!!

Btw, the subject of soundstage/focus ( as important as is. ) that " suffer " through a wrong cartridge azymuth set-up is not so important like both frequency extremes that " suffer " more ( and alter the whole tonal balance and increment distortions/colorations. ) because a wrong azymuth set-up preclude the tuneful bass range and the transparency on the highs ( between other things. ). If with some recordings your bass is not tight or comes with a high bass overhang then could be a wrong azymuth set up.
The azymut cartridge set-up is the difference between a very good performance and a great one and you can't enjoy this last till you can have the right cartridge set-up!!!!

Today I don't buy a tonearm with out cartridge azymuth control mechanism.

Btw too and like all posted here the " solutions/help " to non-azymuth tonearm mechanism like shims/spacers and the like these " medicines " are worst than the illness.
Dear friends an Aspirine does not heal/cure a Cancer.

Some one posted ( and I agree with ): change your tonearm!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Lewm is right. Correct azimuth is in the very first an optimized geometrical position of the polished areas (NOT the mere stylus...) of your stylus vis-a-vis the two walls of the record groove. Lets further assume, that hardly any cartridge on earth is blessed with two identical coils giving identical output millivolts. This leads to the cruel thought that "optimizing" the electrical figure "crosstalk", without determining the individual electrical output of each coil first, might not necessary give the geometrical correct position.
As tempting as computer-analysis may be (and we all (me too...) are long used to computer-generated convenience in many respects of our everyday life .... and even more to come..), it does not necessary give the correct result in adjusting phono cartridge azimuth on a electrical basis.
Here once again we have to "walk the distance" and should by all means trust that biological yet fairly complex device inside our brain - the hearing.
Take a purely acoustical recording - old Opus3 records do work marvels here... - with a solo voice accompanied by solo instrument with resonance corpus (a guitar, bass, piano - you name it).
You will hear it when azimuth locks in.

Dear Dougdeacon, - nice link. It works very well indeed. It does not cure the cancer either, but it surely will prolong life and restore its level ( of performance ) into the high 90 percentage.