"Straight" talk

Good point Stringreen but I worry that the title you have chosen for this thread might be a little misleading? In many cases ideal azimuth may be anything but straight -- I've had a significant number of carts that need to be canted well off to one side, Air Tights in particular seem very prone to this

I agree that improper adjustment of azimuth can result in suboptimal listening, but I fear also that improper adjustment of azimuth often results from either improper use and understanding of devices used to check crosstalk or use of faulty measuring tools to assess crosstalk.  In other words, on average, one might be better off with ignoring azimuth adjustment in favor of setting the cantilever 90 degrees with respect to the LP surface.

And for another thing, if your cartridge has to be set "well off to one side" to achieve whatever one defines to be proper azimuth, then that places stresses on the cantilever which I fear can also cause distortion.

When buying my latest iteration of the Dynavector DV 20X2, I had the good fortune of having a true perfectionist mount and tweak the cartridge set-up such that all parameters were maximized.  What a difference that makes.  Methinks sometimes we emphasize the importance of which cartridge over how it is mated to the tonearm.

Folkfreak.....   Actually, I thought it was kind of clever.   The object of the game is to get the diamond to sit straight in the record groove....  Lewn....the diamond is to be straight in the groove...If the stylus was not affixed to the cantilever properly than the arm should compensate....that's exactly what the Foz easily permits.

HiFiMan....if it were I, I'd double check it.