"Straight" talk

folkfreak, Perhaps I spoke to soon. I agree with you; I read the rest of the piece by Durand, and he does get it right, or at least I agree with the gist of it.

If you’re using an instrument to set up azimuth by measurements of crosstalk, rather than by ear, the question arises what is your endpoint? Are you shooting for equal crosstalk (L into R compared to R into L channel) or lowest db of crosstalk? The two are almost never achieved at the same setting. I have read arguments both ways, but I think the FOZ dictates you are searching for equal crosstalk. Perhaps that makes sense.

Clearthink, Say what you will about listening to old phono cartridges, but hundreds of us have benefited from Raul's now 254-page thread on the subject of MM cartridges.  I credit Raul with bringing these gems to my attention. There is a lot of agreement among the devotees about what are the best ones and what ones are mediocre.  The very fact that this is so indicates that aging does not have such a differential effect on one sample vs another, provided the cartridge has been properly stored in a home environment (not in the garage or basement).  Therefore, discussing such cartridges and comparing them is not such a ridiculous pastime. Ironically, Raul himself has given up the quest in favor of modern MC cartridges.  Perhaps you don't want to know that; it would conflict with the flimsy rationale for your vendetta.

The point of me posting this thread is that in my setup, nothing I did has had as great a difference as when I locked in azimuth.  I tried tracking 1/2 grm more or less than Ortofon's recommendation, I tried raising/lowering the back end of the tonearm, I tried using more/less load to the cartridge..... but nothing I did was as important to the final musicality of my system as was the zeroing in of azimuth.  This adjustment made the low end effortless and seeming octaves below the former setting, the air and 3 dimensional portrayal is light years ahead of the former setting......etc., etc.  It was so important I just wanted to share my experiences with my audiophile friends. VPI suggests eyeballing the rod on the head of their tonearm...  The point is that even a "bit" off is off.  It sounds good, but not when care of adjustment is carefully fineallized.

@stringreen That's interesting, do you have digital microscope? 
Life is easier with tonearms like Reed 3p with Azymuth adjustment on the fly, amazing solution. It can be much more complicated to set azymuth on headshell with other tonearms. M.Fremer talking about crosstalk settings in this video somewere in the middle or in the end of the seminar. 

Chakster....the point of my post was not to discuss which arm is better than another....only to emphasize the importance of proper azimuth setting.  All too often there are those that think that a setting with a bubble level,a metal rod, a mirror reflection et al is adequate.  I'm cautioning against this and emphasize azimuth importance. Effort is unimportant...only that it be proper.

Stringreen, Fact is, if one is going to be truly anal about maximizing the listening experience for each and every LP, then one would be constantly fiddling with tonearm parameters.  Maybe I should be embarrassed to admit it, but when I am in a listening session, I want only to get lost in the music.  I do take pains to set up, when I first mount a cartridge in a tonearm, but after that I rarely change settings except perhaps to fiddle with VTF once in a while, by a few tenths of a gram up or down.

I will never forget the first time I heard a Triplanar that was set up for azimuth.  At that point in time (must have been the 1980s), no one was talking about "azimuth" at all.  There were nearly no tonearms or even headshells that permitted azimuth adjustment. Herb Papier himself, the inventor and for many years the maker of all Triplanars, was doing the demonstration.  It was striking how the sound stage, imaging, whatever you want to call it, "locked in" (to use your words, which are very apt), when Herb set the azimuth correctly.  At that moment, I knew that I had to have a Triplanar, but I had to wait several more years until I could afford it. I guess I have become lazy.  However, I still have the Triplanar, a Reed, and several headshells that permit azimuth adjustment.