Azimuth 2020

I know there are several devices for azimuth.
I am not very tech able but found that the SmartTractor was easy, accurate and made it obvious.
After a couple of steps it uses a small magnifying glass that when looking through you can clearly see how to adjust the cartridge so that the stylus tracks at the right angle to the grove. About a millimeter to the left and the difference in the sound was huge!I was cautious at first thinking it was too complex. But it as a piece of cake. I borrowed the SmartTractor from a friend. Too bad it cost about $700. But for such a useful, multi purpose tool it is worth it.

I only sweat azimuth when using my transit...
...and we're talking inches over feet.....;)

Darn Terry don't tell everybody!! 

Actually terry I have tossed cartridges for less and I won't sell them off either without letting the potential buyer know they are defective. I expect cartridges to be perfectly aligned and stay that way. If they are not and don't I permanently avoid that manufacturer. But as I have said all the top manufacturers are very good. I have not seen a defective cartridge in a long time. So, I expect very few people will wind up tossing their cartridges.
Get that stylus perfectly perpendicular and chance are your cross talk will be at it's best. If you want to spend $300 on a fozzgowhatever to prove it to yourself knock yourself out. I'd rather buy music:)

Uberwaltz, don't tell me you are in love with Peter Lederman. I thought MC was the only jitterbug here. Peter Ledernman is no god. He took an old B+O design and stuffed it in an ugly body. He learned how to manufacture cartridges, something anyone even you could do and created a marketing strategy to suck people in. None of this is rocket science. The real cartridge god is Joseph Grado. Everything comes from his work. He tossed the moving coil design because with the materials he had on hand the moving mass was simply too high and even with the stiffest suspensions there were serious resonance problems in the upper registers. So he created the moving iron design which was far superior with the materials he had to work with. The B+O was a modification of his design something that Peter fails to mention god forbid he should give Grado some credit. I think Joseph Grado would be pleased to see what has happened to the moving coil design with modern materials and magnets. 

I knew Joe Grado personally....went to his lab in Westfield, NJ, rode in his yellow Lambo, when no one had one.  He was a singer at the MET..had a great voice, and knew sound.  His state of the art system was AR woofer, Janzen electrostatic midrange, and Ionovac  plasma tweeters.  Great fun.