Turntable leveling

I leave a small bubble level on the tt deck, always verifying level.

Bubble Levels can be defective. I have several various plastic ones, they all agree with each other (and they agree with my more professional levels I double check with).

I just bought a nicer stainless steel one with blue fluid to look good with McIntosh blue meters for an amplifier stand I will be selling on eBay. The new one is off a few degrees, what a shame, perhaps a tiny imperfection inside that prevents the bubble from centering. My quest for blue fluid is not done, the first one said blue, showed blue, came green. 

FWIW, the better quality tools, the better the project

Just make sure that when the platter is level your tonearm mounting plate is level.

It is imperative to get the tt level PRIOR to:

1. arm height adjustment.

a. sufficient clearance when lifted, enough space when lifted to brush/liquid clean stylus and/or clean dust off anti-static brush if used. Back to front of course. Once set, I do not remove my headshell from the arm to clean it, it stays 'perfect' and gets very carefully cleaned in place.

b. arm floating parallel at zero tracking weight, zero anti-skating.

c. height for proper vertical tracking angle into the groove while lowered/playing.

2. cartidge alignments (forward/back and left/right in the headshell to achieve best parallel alignment at the 2 points throughout the arc on the alignment gauge. Critically tedious, and things move as you tighten, double check, do it again, again. Check after a few months, proves you got it tight enough.

3. view from front: perfectly straight down into the groove (tiny shims in the headshell may be required, they are the worst, but, nirvana awaits). If you add shims, you gotta set the 2 points of alignment again!

I use a thin mirror on the platter. Lower the stylus, nose down, eyeball straight at it: any slight angle will be more easily seen.

4. tracking weight (zero anti-skating for this).  Shure anti-static brush: brush up when setting desired tracking force. Add 1/2 gram when calibrating, to compensate for the brush's upward force in use, i.e. 1.75 without brush = 1.25 with brush in use. Then, set anti-skating for 1.25 to match the effective tracking force of 1.25   

5. anti-skating equal to tracking weight. This is VERY important, and, assuming prior adjustments are correct, needs to be refined by ear. Test records, your most familiar recordings. Proper balance left/right separation, center image is all critical to this, stylus 'free floating' in the center of the groove, ready to properly respond to all vertical/left/right input.

Note: I use my McIntosh 'mode' switch, go from Stereo to Stereo Reverse, you know for sure if anything changes. Mono to left, mono to right, .... it is one of my favorite McIntosh features.

My question is after doing all that will I still have time and energy to play and listen? I got all tuckered out just reading the list. 

This is something you have to do every time, right? I mean, level depends on gravity, which with the moon....

millercarbon,
I agree: there's so much time, effort and expertise required for managing a vinyl playback system that sometimes it hardly seems worthwhile. Nonetheless, having a large vinyl collection (and occasionally giving in to the urge to buy a special LP), I continue to use and enjoy the medium despite the trouble and the cost.

I've acquired a Swedish Inogon Combination Level and Angle Reader which is reputed to be highly accurate. Using that, I confirmed my turntable is about 1 degree off from perfect horizontal and (interestingly) the reading perfectly matches the free iPhone leveling app's reading! In my humble system, I doubt that the small deviation from absolute level will be audible...I hope!
Keith