Quandry

@rvpiano ,

You avoid that hole by learning how to deal with a turntable. No adjustment is permanent. Poorly adjusted anti skating can cause mistracking, severity depending on the cartridge, which can make things sound pretty bad and also damage your records permanently. 

You need to be able to check VTF and antiskating for sure. All this requires is the right tools, a tracking force gauge and a WallySkater. The WallySkater is a bit pricey but it is foolproof and very reassuring. You can leave cartridge installation to your dealer although I personally do not trust any of them

@rvpiano I feel your pain. But I think @lewm is on the right track. Face your fear. Learn as much as can from Michael Fremer’s several videos on YouTube and elsewhere. Ortophon also has some excellent tutorials, explanations, demonstrations, etc. I costs nothing but your time to learn what adjustments are critical to performance. Then decide whether to invest in an outside technician or tools. If technician, you pay for each cartridge or issue; if you do it yourself, you will need to invest in tools with which you may not be comfortable using, but if you can master them, you will be ultra confident and not at anyone’s mercy. I try to buy my equipment all ready setup, but the strategy has not been foolproof.
To sum it up, educate yourself, it’s not magic, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it all yourself. You can hire someone AND be confident the job’s been done right. It is the path I would prefer, but I would have to drive at least two hours round trip to get the service; and they certainly wouldn’t come to me. Good luck with your journey. 

If you like what you are hearing now, I would just back and enjoy rather than obsess about what you might be missing.  The trick is when to learn when you’ve crossed the finish line.  Enjoy the music that this system is meant to reproduce.

  A word about getting an “expert” to look at your system.  I was a Primary Care Physician.  I had many patients who would be absolutely stable on their present medical regimen.  For whatever reason they decided to see a new Cardiologist, Pulmonologist, whatever.  Frequently the consultant would tweak one medication, prescribing a substitute that did exactly the same thing.  Why?  The consultant needed to justify the time, expense, and effort that the patient had made in seeking them out.  I am sure that this goes on in other fields as well.  So if you invite someone into your home to evaluate your set up, with which you are currently pleased, I’d be shocked if if they said “It’s all good, don’t change anything “

Mahler, as another physician, I don’t disagree with the message of your anecdote as it applies to sub specialists in medicine, but I don’t think the analogy to the OP’s situation is a good one. The OP is not in contact with any competent audio generalist at present and has no basic skills in the hobby. He needs an audio doctor, as a first visit to set hm on the right path.

HELLO RVPIANO! If you haven't changed anything since changing the anit-skate, be happy!  The anti skate puts a force on the arm to counter the momentum of the arm being pulled toward the spindle by the steady presure from the spiralling groove. Any serious error can put your delicate stylus into a bad position in reation to the cartridge body. The proof of this is the impprovement you heard. Stylus pressure cannot make that kind of difference unless it is HUGELY too light (you'll hear the stylus rattle in the groove) or too heavy (the arm will noticably "sag" whtn the stylun is lowered into the groove). Here's how to spot a serious alingment problem: Take a known record you expect to give you really great sound. Play the outer band. Compare this with the spound from the innermost band (track, set of grooves). Is there a serious difference? (Be sure to use a record that has inner bands that get close to the label.) How do these compare with the sound from the middle bands? If there are clear differences, then you have an alignment problem. For tracking angle checks. Find a record that sounds great: put two other records under it and listen again. Hear a big difference? Fancy stylus shapes can be very fussy here. Conical styli cartridges are not very fussy at all. If you hear a big difference (you should), which is better? If the elevated record sounds better, you have an vertical angle tracking problem. Nothing will blow up if you fiddle with various adjustments. Often tracking at the highest recommended force will cure a lot of problems. Be sure the little connectors on the pins of the cartridge are very snug. Everything should be clean and shiny.

If your hands shake a bit (as many do), leave it to the pros (or a really sharp kid from the record shop)! Happy listening!