Audio Technica ART9 sounds awful

Just a last gasp:  The source of a phase issue (one channel out of phase with the other), if there is a phase issue, need not be limited to the connections of the color-coded leads at the cartridge; it could be downstream at any junction.  It could even be at the distal end of the very short leads between the cartridge and the headshell, if someone misconnected the leads to the pins on the headshell, for one channel.  (This also assumes you use a tonearm with a removable headshell.) I realize you are now satisfied, but just sayin'...

It's not even out of the question that the defect in your cartridge, if there is one, is simply that connections to the external pins for one channel are reversed internally, although that would be hard to imagine for a company like AT.

I offer this only because I find it unlikely that maladjustment of azimuth or of VTA could have the particular effect you describe, unless azimuth was WAYYYY off, maybe.

I forgot to add that I disconnected the anti skating.  Between this and the azimuth the soundstage returned.

Oregonpapa, I don't have an answer for you yet.  It sounds alright at this point but I wouldn't be fair to say anything more.  As an aside, no offense to pani, I prefer Dynavector's sound right out of the box.  That's the beauty of this hobby, I can shape the sound as I like it, because previous few of us have heard the music As it was originally recorded to state what it should sound like.  Yes?

@safebelayer , 
What ended up happening and did you keep the ART9 or go back to the Dynavector? 

My ART9 sounded great out of the box.  It was a bit restrained and had some surface noise, which went away in no time. 

It ended up working out just fine.  Great resolution.  Maybe a bit too bottom heavy, but who knows, maybe my speakers (Nola contenders). This will be my final entry.  Thx to you all.

Apologies for weighing in so late.

I would have suggested zeroing-out anti-skate as an experiment to see how it affected the cart. The reason is that there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that excessive anti-skate can trigger induced resonance in high compliance carts where they are mated to “borderline compatible” tonearms (and possibly even in genuinely compatible ones depending on the nature of the application – spring bias or weighted). Some users claim to have lessened or cured induced resonance by substantially reducing AS.

Interestingly one of the side-effects of induced resonance - and I've experienced this myself - is “phase-ey” behaviour in the cartridge (not that the OP was reporting this effect but may have been unaware).

Safebelayer, try increasing the AS back to a higher level then eyeballing the cart to see if it exhibits any such behaviour - especially on pinchwarps. To fully check your rig, rather than trying the math when you have no data, the most practical way is to use the test bands on e.g. HFN&RR.

Another possible cause (in the general sense) is fluid tonearm damping. Again, anecdotally, some claim damping helps while others warn against its use with high compliance carts. Flip a coin ;^)

Just another 2 things to worry about…. ;^)