DaVinci tonearm and azymuth

I think the DaVinci head shell is machined dead flat and with the pivot point being contained in its jewelled double gimbal bearing, it ain't moving anywhere out of alignment.
The problem is of course, that not all cartridge bodies are as perfectly flat nor are the cantilevers for the stylus assembly perfectly aligned and rarely are the styli themselves mounted in perfectly vertical alignment to their cantilevers.
This seems in practice to put most cartridges I mount in my DaVinci 12" Grandezza Ref 'out' of perfect azimuth alignment.
I compensate (as you suggest), with the 'balance' control on the pre-amp.
Not ideal for the 'purists' out there but in the real world of sound, it's hard to find an arm to beat the DaVinci IMHO.

Never had that problem, but I would send it back for repair.

Agree with Syntax. If it's truly the arm that's out and not the cartridge, get it fixed. If it's visible to you, it was visible to the builder. IMO there's no reason to accept clearly visible inaccuracies at this price point. You can get those on a Rega.

Azimuth affects more than L/R channel balance. That isn't even the main thing it affects. As good as the DaVinci arms are, the lack of adjustable azimuth would be an annoyance for me. But Halcro already knows I'm one o' them purists! ;-)