What does a tonearm contribute to the sound of a turntable?

I have a version of damping tape on the drivers in my Spatials. Their previous owner put it on and said it really helped control the sound. I took his word for it.

A few more things:

1. I'm going to re-drill my armboard; I'm off by 3.5mm on my Feickert and when I used Stevenson alignment, I feel the connector wires from the head shell to the cartridge are too smushed together.
   
2. I conducted a decibel test using the Ultimate Analogue Test LP left and right azimuth and found that my right speaker tests about 10 decibels higher than my left. Yet when playing Dire Straits' BIA 45 reissue and comparing with with the SACD, the instruments were in their correct channels and had comparable loudness levels. Waddup with that? I plan on swapping tubes on my Pathos tonight to see if that's the culprit.
   

Btw - everyone's advice and straightforward info is much appreciated.

Waddup with that?

People gonna flip out Simao but I will tell you waddup widdat: azimuth is one of the biggest waste of time specs in all of turntable setup. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks its important who even knows what it is. What I mean is they say they know, but then they get it wrong. If you want to really know go to YouTube or Soundsmith and let Peter Ledermann explain it to you. He totally nails it. As you would expect.

The #1 thing to keep in mind with everything having to do with turntable/arm/cartridge setup is all the specs, all the alignment, VTF, VTA, all of it, is intended to get you in the ballpark. Well except for overhang. That one you want to nail. All the rest you fine tune by ear.

Azimuth does matter, and Ledermann explains beautifully why. But if you listen carefully you will understand just how complicated it is and why it is that you can measure so bad yet sound so good. What you hear always- always- takes precedence over what you measure.

And now if someone who thinks azimuth is so important will please explain what it is and why it matters and get it right we will have a first for this website.

Agree with most of what is said above. Everything matters. Signals are tiny, and anything that can, will effect the signal.

Regarding Azimuth, I need to see the video.

Seems to me, when set up properly (I use a voltmeter, check left and right channels using a 1kHz signal that plays left, then right) Fremer has a way to do this if you have an accurate multi meter and a test record.

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/crazy-little-thing-called-azimuth-part-1

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/crazy-little-thing-called-azimuth-part-2

Curious to see what Peters thoughts are on this? It would seem to me, that in order to get the best possible L/R channel separation, proper azimuth is critical...

 ++millercarbon
 Wow! He  covered everything!   A REALLY important consideration is Cartridge Compliance and the Tonearm choice that MC mentioned above. A rigid arm requires a compliant cartridge!  Much more than 10. The more the better if using a stiff arm! And Vice-versa with a compliant arm.  An MC cartridge won’t do that without spending a million $. They do cost more for a reason. They sound better, whether  choosing MC or MM/MI.
You can join vinylengine.com and see a graph that compares compliance of the cartridge and the rigidity of the arm, together.  Additionally  there is a really elaborate [sic. accurate] calculation that will help you calculate it more accurately than that graph, somewhere on the Internet.
Again, listen to what Mr Lederman has to say!
Bent

Without one the sound is very attenuated.