Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to loop back give an update. I ordered a few things to aid in setup: HiFi News setup record, Shure stylus force gauge, bubble level.
After a complete setup things sound much better. Using the proper tools - I found that things were not setup optimally (surprise!). I leveled things out - table and and azimuth, both slightly out of spec. I found that my tracking force was way off - almost .3-.4 off. Before, I was using the "float your tone arm" method of force. Anyway, that wasn't too accurate of a method. So, I setup a 1.8 tracking force. Finally, I used the HiFi news setup record and found that a 2.5 anti-skate was the best. Originally, I had this matched to the downward tracking force.
The bad news, is that it didn't pass the torture track, and only had slight minimal trouble with the track before it.
Anyway, things sound a whole lot better!