Help me understand cartridge alignment

you need a headshell with long slots that go further to the front.

this one has azimuth adjustment, slors, and is plastic, so you could extend the slots or drill holes closer to the front if needed

this one, also azimuth adjustment, the slots go near the front, BUT, how long is it? It is metal I think

I do have a Fidelity Research headshell on the way that has enough adjustability to make for correct alignment. 

I guess I expected to hear the distortion if it was off by that much which is the point of the question.

I'm interested to see if there is any sound difference when the proper alignment is achieved with the new headshell.

dhcod

I expected to hear the distortion if it was off by that much which is the point of the question.

That you couldn't hear any distortion suggests problems elsewhere in the system, such as a sworn stylus, improper P2S, turntable way out of level, low-res phono preamp ...

"It's sounds awesome."

"The thing is, I don't have the right headshell for the SL15 yet so it can only line up like 5MM short on the Feickert."

I use the Feickert jig. Baerwald pushes the cart the most forward of the 3 alignments. At least you can do other 2 with good results (of course with the inherent limitations) My hearing isn't sensitive enough to hear any real differences between the 3.

So you need a longer headshell with more slot to get the cart to align with the grids?

Dear @dhcod  : The cartridge/pivotes tonearm alignment must be accurated for the cartridge can shows at its best.

It's not posible to have 100% accuracy but with your protractor you can stay near to that accuracy target. 

All over the LP grooves even if we " have " 100% accuracy we will listening different distortion levels but at the 2 null points, so we all the time are heraing distorted sounds. How much distorted? dpends of the accuracy of our aloignment efforts.

With aremovable headshell tonearm the change in the " color " of the reproduced sounds depends of the material of blend materials of the headshell and its build quality. There are several and different headshells that everything the same gives you different " color " no matters what. I don't like FR but that's  me, you have try and decide bit not only whith the FR but with other headshells out there.

You said that even with those 5mm out of the protractor grid the cartridge sound good and yes is very dificult ( everything the same ) that with a non-accurated alignment the sounds beeeen really bad and for this could happens the misalignment must be really high. So forgeret that you like rigth now what you are listening because you can listen it with higher quality performance when that cartridge/tonearm been " perfcetly aliggned " and remember that each headshell is part of the sounds reproduced " color ".

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.