Great summary by Lewm.
Having done that many times with many cartridges, I eventually learned that I could adjust azimuth just as well, and far more quickly, by listening.
Choose LPs (ideally mono) that have a higher register instrument or voice (think soprano or upper register of the clarinet). Acoustic instruments or non-amplified vocals, please, not electronified hash. If the LP is stereo, the instrument or voice should be in the center, not off to one side.
Listen for the azimuth setting which makes this voice/instrument sound as tight/small/non-bloated as possible. A clarinet is not 4 feet wide, and shouldn't sound so. Some sopranos... oh, never mind! The point is, minimizing/equalizing crosstalk (as Lewm described) results in the most focused imaging.
It's essential that you're sitting in the sweet spot and that your speaker/room setup is well adjusted for pinpoint imaging. (If it isn't, you're wasting your time fussing with azimuth anyway.) Listen to a few CD's with the kind of music I described to give yourself a baseline. Crosstalk with any decent digital media is lower than with even the best vinyl rig, so it can provide a good baseline for comparison.
IMPORTANT: the adjustments to optimize azimuth, by any method, are incredibly tiny. Make the smallest adjustments that you possibly can. The window for optimum setting is very narrow. Get outside that window and you'll hear and/or measure little if any change. Start with the stylus visibly vertical when riding in the groove and tweak in tiny increments from there.
Having done that many times with many cartridges, I eventually learned that I could adjust azimuth just as well, and far more quickly, by listening.
Choose LPs (ideally mono) that have a higher register instrument or voice (think soprano or upper register of the clarinet). Acoustic instruments or non-amplified vocals, please, not electronified hash. If the LP is stereo, the instrument or voice should be in the center, not off to one side.
Listen for the azimuth setting which makes this voice/instrument sound as tight/small/non-bloated as possible. A clarinet is not 4 feet wide, and shouldn't sound so. Some sopranos... oh, never mind! The point is, minimizing/equalizing crosstalk (as Lewm described) results in the most focused imaging.
It's essential that you're sitting in the sweet spot and that your speaker/room setup is well adjusted for pinpoint imaging. (If it isn't, you're wasting your time fussing with azimuth anyway.) Listen to a few CD's with the kind of music I described to give yourself a baseline. Crosstalk with any decent digital media is lower than with even the best vinyl rig, so it can provide a good baseline for comparison.
IMPORTANT: the adjustments to optimize azimuth, by any method, are incredibly tiny. Make the smallest adjustments that you possibly can. The window for optimum setting is very narrow. Get outside that window and you'll hear and/or measure little if any change. Start with the stylus visibly vertical when riding in the groove and tweak in tiny increments from there.