Spindle-To-Pivot Distance

The thing is that an under hung tonearm will yield massive amounts of tracking angle error when the stylus is not located at its single null point on the surface of the LP. Way more tracking angle error than is developed in a properly aligned overhung tonearm with a correct headshell offset angle. And yet I hear absolutely no problem. With your 14 inch tonearms, of course you have dramatically reduced the tracking angle error at any position on the LP, compared to that of the RS Lab, but I would wager the actual error is still higher or not much better than one gets with a 9 inch overhung tonearm. I bet the soundQuality is excellent.

...mind the 'jerry rigged' comments, puleze....I've been spending a lot of time giving that a positive spin in my own meandering fashion.... ;)

" Why would moving the cartridge forward in a headshell with elongated slots “look ugly”, and who cares?"

Indeed.  That is where my Hana rides on my VPI . . . . . . 

What tonearm and what turntable?

This is all really good stuff.  Thank you all.  I think I'm going to mount the turntable on an oversized plate, mount the tonearm where the edge of the turntable platter is closest to the platter, and put the darn thing where the manufacturer says to put it.  It looks kind of goofy but so do I. I ran the vinylengine calculator and the numbers that it gave me correspond to the alignment points on an ancient cardboard protractor that I have, so if it ends up wrong well, what can I do.