Excellent report. Glad you're hearing and enjoying improved sound!
To address your question, "Is this unusual", the answer is "no". In fact it's common.
Jcarr of Lyra once posted about the technical challenge of affixing styli to cantilevers at precise 90 degree angles. It's difficult, costly and the reject rate climbs rapidly if a manufacturer insists on "perfection". Therefore, several degrees of tolerance are typical for all but the very costliest cartridges. That's the reality and we users must deal with it. Of course if a new cartridge is badly out of spec we should expect a repair or replacement, but small deviations do exist.
There are more reasons. Adjusting azimuth by levelling the headshell naively assumes that all the following are perfect:
- angle of headshell top surface to bottom surface
- angle of headshell bottom surface to cartridge top surface
- angle of cartridge top surface to the interior surface the suspension is mounted on
- squareness of the suspension material itself (which happens to be elastic)
- angle of suspension to cantilever
- angle of cantilever to stylus (as mentioned by jcarr)
Of course nothing is perfect and this list identifies at least six opportunities for error. If you're lucky, some inaccuracies will counteract others. If you're not...
The optimal way to start any adjustment is simple: ALWAYS adjust the parameter that's (i) as close as possible to what you're actually concerned about while (ii) being readily visible or measurable. With azimuth our prime concern is the angle of the stylus to the groove when viewed from the front. That's readily visible, especially with a Mint, so that's where we should start.
Since eyeballing azimuth is so easy, levelling anything else is foolish (sorry). Manufacturers like VPI, who even offer little rods to help level headshells, do a disservice to their customers. Levelling the cartridge body as a proxy for azimuth makes no more sense than squaring the cartridge body as a proxy for zenith. We don't play grooves with a cartridge's body.
Once you've got the stylus looking vertical, fine tune by ear using VERY tiny adjustments. A small fraction of one degree is audible in a good system. Tightness and focus of high pitched instruments or vocals is probably the single easiest thing to listen for, though azimuth affects everything you described.
Again, congrats and enjoy!
To address your question, "Is this unusual", the answer is "no". In fact it's common.
Jcarr of Lyra once posted about the technical challenge of affixing styli to cantilevers at precise 90 degree angles. It's difficult, costly and the reject rate climbs rapidly if a manufacturer insists on "perfection". Therefore, several degrees of tolerance are typical for all but the very costliest cartridges. That's the reality and we users must deal with it. Of course if a new cartridge is badly out of spec we should expect a repair or replacement, but small deviations do exist.
There are more reasons. Adjusting azimuth by levelling the headshell naively assumes that all the following are perfect:
- angle of headshell top surface to bottom surface
- angle of headshell bottom surface to cartridge top surface
- angle of cartridge top surface to the interior surface the suspension is mounted on
- squareness of the suspension material itself (which happens to be elastic)
- angle of suspension to cantilever
- angle of cantilever to stylus (as mentioned by jcarr)
Of course nothing is perfect and this list identifies at least six opportunities for error. If you're lucky, some inaccuracies will counteract others. If you're not...
The optimal way to start any adjustment is simple: ALWAYS adjust the parameter that's (i) as close as possible to what you're actually concerned about while (ii) being readily visible or measurable. With azimuth our prime concern is the angle of the stylus to the groove when viewed from the front. That's readily visible, especially with a Mint, so that's where we should start.
Since eyeballing azimuth is so easy, levelling anything else is foolish (sorry). Manufacturers like VPI, who even offer little rods to help level headshells, do a disservice to their customers. Levelling the cartridge body as a proxy for azimuth makes no more sense than squaring the cartridge body as a proxy for zenith. We don't play grooves with a cartridge's body.
Once you've got the stylus looking vertical, fine tune by ear using VERY tiny adjustments. A small fraction of one degree is audible in a good system. Tightness and focus of high pitched instruments or vocals is probably the single easiest thing to listen for, though azimuth affects everything you described.
Again, congrats and enjoy!