Is elliptical the best stylus profile

I have Van den Hul re-tip my cartridges. I have never been disappointed.

I listened to elliptical styli for 25 years (Micro Acoustics 2002e, Shure M97, and Grace F9e). I replaced the elliptical stylus on my Grace F9 with a SoundSmith "Optimized Line Contact" stylus. I now play records with the F9, bought in the 70's and played dozens of times and they sound better than any elliptical did and it now tracks the Telarc 1812 Overture cannon fire perfectly. The F9e would not hold the track.

I also have a SoundSmith Voice (OCL), Ortophon 2M Black (Shibata), and Signet TK7SU (Shibata). They all track fine. Extensive setup time is needed to dial in anti-skate properly, done by ear.

Granted I have had some adventures in setup, but once dialed in there is a major difference in timbre and sound stage. It also helps to have clean records. I play and there is virtually no record noise of any kind.

Peace and rock on :)

"Is there any correlation between stylus shape and a specific alignment method for setting up the cart?"

No. Aligning the stylus has more to do with the record groove than the stylus. There is one position, and one angle, in the groove where the most information can be extracted, with the most accuracy, regardless of stylus shape. Once the stylus is in that position, its shape will determine how much of that information it is able to extract, but "finding the spot" is the same for all shapes.

bimasta

Aligning the stylus has more to do with the record groove than the stylus. There is one position, and one angle, in the groove where the most information can be extracted, with the most accuracy, regardless of stylus shape

That may be mostly true, but it's not that simple. Consider that with a spherical stylus, there's really no such thing as VTA because the angle is the same regardless of the height of the pickup arm. As you advance to an elliptical stylus, VTA obviously becomes a factor in proper alignment. As you climb the scale to fine-line styli, hyper-elliptical, Shibata styli and other more refined shapes, some have established that SRA is the more critical angle. Of course, as you adjust SRA you also change VTA, but you can only optimize for one! So aligning for SRA may be the most important angle to optimize for some special stylus shapes, while VTA may be what you optimize for others.

To correct my own post above ▲▲▲▲▲▲ it was not quite accurate to say there's no VTA when using a conical stylus, because VTA describes the cantilever more than the stylus. What I should have said is that because of the conical stylus shape, there is no effect when changing the VTA, because it doesn't change the stylus' contact with the groove. (Of course, when you change the VTA by raising or lowering the pickup arm, you are changing the overhang, however slightly.)