Azimuth: How to setup Cartridge horizontal balance (AnalogMagik Tutorial 3)

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Azimuth refers to the horizontal balance of the cartridge when viewed from the front. This in turn determines at which angle the stylus sits on the record groove.
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The theoretical assumption is that when the Cartridge is perfectly perpendicular to the record groove, the stylus will sit perfectly in the record grooves. Visual methods using tools such as the Acoustical System SMARTStylus (an acrylic block with grid lines) or bubble levels offers an excellent starting point.
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All cartridges are made by hand and therefore, the stylus may not actually be perfectly perpendicular to the cantilever, or the cartridge body. This means visual methods, can only provide you with an approximation. As soon as the record spins, whether your stylus is sitting at the optimal spot is unknown, so it is impossible to achieve an accurate setup by eyesight.
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If azimuth is set incorrectly, the Stylus will not sit perfectly in the record groove, signals recorded on the Left Channel will leak to the Right Channel, (or vice versa), this is leakage between Channels is called Crosstalk, and it is expressed as a negative decibel number. The higher the negative number, the lower the crosstalk, the better the channel separation.
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All cartridge will have some inherent crosstalk, high quality cartridges will usually have a crosstalk above -30dB for both channels, whereas the average cartridge will usually have a crosstalk between -25 to -30 dB.
It is important that Azimuth is affected by Antiskating, VTA, as well as VTF. Therefore, one will need to go back and forth between different parameters to find a setting which optimizes all parameters, not just parameter.
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[@alexandrabetke]

👍👍👍

[@rowepiece37]

Smitten. Damnit.

[@acodsw8813]

Not an easy thing to use. You need a crazy sharp microscope not to mention great vision power to spot the tiny stylus and it's vertical alignment

[@richardmak9866]

No, AnalogMagik does not relie on visual methods. It is based on measurements while the stylus is playing on the grooves. Visual methods are unreliable because whatever is eyeballed visually will change when the vinyl spins.