Cartridge Opinions - Sorry

@rauliruegas
“i can add that almost everyone knows that it's the cantilever/stylus the ones that be align in the protractor.“
I think you missed my point
First, it appears you’re confusing cartridge cantilever with tonearm.  
Second, I’m referring to manufacturing inconsistencies whose point you appear to miss.

Many/most who purchased a cartridge act/assume like both cartridge cantilever and the stylus are “perfectly” mounted which is not the case.  Cartridges are not commodities where everything is the same, nor automated assembly lines where tolerances can be closely monitored.  They are usually hand crafted by gifted artisans as such there are variations from cartridge to cartridge - teeny tiny variations of the stylus angles can have a significant audible affect.  Certain manufacturers have a reputation for consistency in their stylus and cantilever mountings, others not so much.  Some cartridges have to be returned because the stylus was mounted badly.    

I’m not an authority on how to “optimize” a cartridge as I’m currently wading through this subject, but I’ll pass along what I know so far.  You’ll need magnification to inspect the quality of mountings for your specific cartridge.  Michael Fremer suggests using a usb microscope to achieve 92 degrees stylus to groove angle as viewed from the cartridge side, and check the verticality 90 degrees from the front. This stylus to groove adjustment method circumvents the inconsistent stylus to cantilever and the cantilever to body issues making them both moot.   I’ve also read that after cartridge break in, angles may change so need readjustment.  There’s also Analog Magik cartridge setup software which I’ve yet to explore/research.

To adjust zenith, using a quality protractor is an valuable tool.  But if you want to “optimize” your cartridge, you can’t automatically assume that the cartridge cantilever is “perfectly parallel” to the cartridge body because of manufacturing variations as mentioned above

”Optimizing” your cartridge takes significantly more time/patience/effort, but it’s free (not counting any additional tool purchases) and will pay dividends for all your cartridges - for now and future purchases.

Forgive me if I haven't read every word of every comment posted on my thread  (please point it out if I've missed something), it has gotten pathetically long as people continue their pissing contests .

I understand the challenge to accurately mount a mechanical transducer where it needs to be perfectly aligned in 3 dimensions: pitch, yaw & roll to put it in common terms. My tonearm, the Linn Ittok, doesn't provide for adjustments in roll (azimuth). I know that this can be measured with a test record and a scope. If azimuth adjustments need to be made, I can get shim stock. 

My question is how can one accurately measure yaw (twist) and pitch (VTA)? I have a USB scope but trying to accurately measure the angle of a stylus to a record surface, or the angle of a cantilever to a record groove using a cheap optical instrument while coping with parallax seems silly. Buying software that magically simplifies this seems more so (again, correct me if I'm wrong).

On the other hand, I'm sure some do it by ear which IMO shouldn't be dismissed. The best musicians I know tune by ear and they understand that no acoustic instrument can be "perfectly tuned" but they know what works 90% of the time.

Please help me make sense of this. Thanks.

Try the nagaoka mp 300/500 for excellent sound altho i am not quite sure its compliance is matched to the ittok. Someone with that information please chip in. 

@klooker   The Linn philosophy with regards to tonearms seems to be that the ability to adjust azimuth is not important. Your Ittok has limited adjustability in regards to a number of set up parameters. Linn seems to think that the cartridge manufacturer should have exacting manufacturing tolerances to make azimuth errors irrelevant. This is not something that I personally believe occurs. Unfortunately, the weak link with the Linn platform is the Linn arm(s),although no one connected to Linn will agree with me.

@daveyf I’m the last guy who’s going to defend Linn and their superior opinions.

So what adjustments does the Ittok lack besides azimuth? Besides overhang, VTA, twist/yaw, and anti-skate what is there? 

Oops, I just re-read your post and you said "limited adjustability". Using the Feickert protractor the cartridge seems to be right on within a fraction of a mm. It's hard to gauge the tangential alignment though.

Thanks