Dear Lewm, you are right. No one - including me ..;-) ... - can judge by eyeside whether a given stylus' polished contact areas are correctly aligned on the cantilever.
This was a great issue in the1980s with most all "audiophile" cartridges of the day. We had to deal with that.
Halcro has indeed raised a VERY important point here:
If we can adjust azimuth and do indeed use that adjustment, we may very well end up in the woods.
Now what if one mount a new cartridge and realizes that the sound is much more dominant towards the left channel?
Will you adjust azimuth ?
Instantly ?
Just a bit - and ... Yes! .... now the sound is more balanced!
Maybe there is a bit more distortion on the left channel in peaks now - but that can be fixed with antiskating set accordingly - right ?
That is a normal scenario.
But what, if the cartridge's stylus was perfectly vertical in the first.
It was just that the two coils had quite some difference in their output.
The apparent "cure" thus led to the wrong path and ultimately to damaged groove and increased disproportional wear on the stylus.
Before we use any prospective azimuth adjustment I for one would make absolutely sure first what is the output of each coil - that has to be determined WITHOUT a groove of course.
When I know the output of both coils, then I have a parameter to build upon and can judge a disbalance in the stereo output on a solid foundation.
However - given today's technique and the fact that no one has to deal with this problem in low-budget and DJ-cartridges - I still see NO POINT in accepting on a multi-hundred (thousand..) cartridge a stylus with less than perfect orientation.
Azimuth alignment should not be necessary.
If applied however, the usershould first determine the exact output of the two coils to have a sure basis.
This was a great issue in the1980s with most all "audiophile" cartridges of the day. We had to deal with that.
Halcro has indeed raised a VERY important point here:
If we can adjust azimuth and do indeed use that adjustment, we may very well end up in the woods.
Now what if one mount a new cartridge and realizes that the sound is much more dominant towards the left channel?
Will you adjust azimuth ?
Instantly ?
Just a bit - and ... Yes! .... now the sound is more balanced!
Maybe there is a bit more distortion on the left channel in peaks now - but that can be fixed with antiskating set accordingly - right ?
That is a normal scenario.
But what, if the cartridge's stylus was perfectly vertical in the first.
It was just that the two coils had quite some difference in their output.
The apparent "cure" thus led to the wrong path and ultimately to damaged groove and increased disproportional wear on the stylus.
Before we use any prospective azimuth adjustment I for one would make absolutely sure first what is the output of each coil - that has to be determined WITHOUT a groove of course.
When I know the output of both coils, then I have a parameter to build upon and can judge a disbalance in the stereo output on a solid foundation.
However - given today's technique and the fact that no one has to deal with this problem in low-budget and DJ-cartridges - I still see NO POINT in accepting on a multi-hundred (thousand..) cartridge a stylus with less than perfect orientation.
Azimuth alignment should not be necessary.
If applied however, the usershould first determine the exact output of the two coils to have a sure basis.