Is elliptical the best stylus profile

Elliptical are not as finicky to setup. I think they pickup more surface noise though.

I have an elliptical stylus and it is dead quiet, tracks amazing on older records.  It just seems as though it gives better performance.  Line contact is a pita to set up and tracks terrible on old records, but if your records are in very god condition, you will be rewarded.

If a cartridge set up is a problem for you then you have to use conical/spherical, but if you want the top quality it is the worst profile ever, the elliptical is clearly not the best profile too. But the more importnat is the whole combination (bonded or nude, cantilever materials and actual generator of the cartridge). You should learn about it: https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=22894

Nude styli, shaped from whole natural diamonds, are more costly than bonded styli, with their diamond tips “bonded” to metal shanks before finishing. But because of their lower mass, nude styli track more accurately. Also, since our nude styli are grain-oriented, with their longest-wearing faces touching the record surface, they last longer.

Hyperelliptical also known as SHIBATA, discrete-4, fine line, or stereohedron styli take the elliptical design further for greater contact with the record. When properly aligned, hyperelliptical styli offer fantastic high-frequency performance, longer tip life, improved tracking, and low record wear. They are, however, harder to manufacture than elliptical styli, and therefore expensive. The Shibata stylus is a type of LineContact stylus that is most often used on more expensive cartridges nowadays. These are small and narrow styli that ride deeper in the groove than either conical or elliptical profiles. Theoretically, they should be less susceptible to surface noise (since they track deeper in the groove and below most surface imperfections) and better able to extract information from the groove.

Now called surround sound, back in the 70's called Quadraphonics. Method of delivering 4-channel sound to the home via the vinyl record format was labeled as a Discrete-4 format. It was later learned that a special stylus was also needed to play back Discrete-4 recordings. The shape of an elliptical stylus did not allow all the tiny modulations in the grooves to be read and allowed dirt and grim to collect in the grooves and hide the subcarrier signal. The most advanced stylus shape created back in the 70's was called the "Shabata". The Shibata shape distinguishes itself by having the necessary small contact surface at the horizontal level for playback of the ultra-high frequencies found on CD-4 records. At the vertical level, the special shape of the stylus gives a wider contact surface than is the case with either spherical or elliptical styli. This means that a Shibata shaped stylus, in spite of its high frequency capabilities, gives less record wear than the traditional stylus shapes. A "Microline" or "LineContact" stylus currently available will also do the job. Those styli also superior for normal stereo records and that's why they are not cheap today.

MICRO LINE stylus tip also known as "Van Den Hul," "Microridge," this is a sophisticated, computer designed diamond shaped stylus, designed to reduce skew error and the resulting harmonic distortion and phase error.

Personally i’ve never had a problem to set up cartridges with Shibata, Line Contact, Stereohedron, Micro Ridge and even Ortofon Replicant 100 (similar to Fritz Gyger). I use Feickert protractor to set up my gear.

The advanced profiles are clearly better than elliptical and anyone can hear it. The advanced styli will read the musical information in the grooves of a record with a greater degree of accuracy than any other kind of needle!

Why would a cartridge manufacturer do that? There are many that do not have a problem setting up a cartridge correctly!

I do not think my set up skills are that bad, I just think certain stylus profile do no track certain records very well.  micro ridge was the profile that I was thinking of originally.  The shibata looks interesting.