Wally Wally Wally

I have no beef with anything you wrote except azimuth is about crosstalk, not “distortion “.

Benjie, You wrote, "I read your post above and I disagree with you, most people here do not agree with my sentiments."
I quoted you in order to avoid the tricky double negative in your sentence.  For the record, I certainly do agree with the merit in using good tools to do alignment and any other job that requires precision.  What I was trying to say is that setting SRA is a can of worms for anyone but the most experienced persons, not only for lack of proper equipment to visualize and measure SRA but also because, based on what I have read elsewhere on various vinyl oriented websites, and even with optimal microscopy tools, it is very difficult to know what you are actually measuring.  This is because modern styli have complex shapes, and one wants to know the angle of the actual contact patch.  I don't think that I, for one, can know that with confidence.  This means only that I rely on setting VTA and hope for the best.  If you can consistently make an accurate measurent of SRA, my hat is off to you.  As to Azimuth, there are good debates for how to do that as well, electrically or physically.  I have settled on my own opinion of what is the best way to do it. I own very good protractors and VTF scales and etc, and I do use them all. None of my alignment gear happens to come from Wally; that doesn't mean it isn't good stuff.

I don't think anyone disagrees with your sentiments, Benjie.  A few exceptions: You might not need to know the effect of bearing friction and wiring on AS, because when you determine a satisfactory amount of added AS, you have automatically accounted for the baseline represented by those inherent factors.  I say " satisfactory", because we know there is no single value of AS that is correct at every point on the surface of the LP.  As for SRA, only a very few diehards make the Herculean effort to see it, let alone measure it.  And when measured, it seems from other posts I have read that virtually no two observers will have the same opinion on the angle visualized, given the complexity of all but the most simple stylus shapes. (See posts and discussions on Vinyl Asylum, for example.). The weakest link in setting up a cartridge, even with proper tools, whatever those are, is human error, IMO.

So "Wally", unlike Houdini, has managed to reach across the River Styx and remains in business even though no longer among us. No RIP for him.