Someone somewhere wrote of the DaVinci that lack of azimuth adjustment made for a simplified construction and in part could account for the perceived superb sound quality. And I think there may be some truth in that. The add-on mechanisms required to allow for azimuth adjustment, different as they are among different expensive tonearms, probably do introduce some measure of added distortion. These things are always a trade-off, and I would not kick a DaVinci out of my house on the basis that it lacked azimuth adjustment.
On the other hand, I have to disagree with Dertonearm. None of us, including him, can "examine" a cartridge and thereby determine whether it came from the factory with perfect azimuth alignment, mostly because the "money" is where we cannot see it, up inside the cartridge body or within the magnet structure for cartridges that do not have a "body" per se. Perfect azimuth is NOT necessarily determined by observing whether the stylus is perfectly perpendicular to the plane of the headshell; it is merely a good start in that direction. Nor do I think that most manufacturers' quality control is so good that we can expect azimuth perfection in proportion to the dollars (or Euros) spent on the cartridge. That's just wishful thinking, and if we return all cartridges that are not perfect in that parameter, most manufacturers would go broke or change businesses.
If I understand Halcro correctly, he is implying that having the capacity to adjust azimuth is actually a disadvantage, because with such tonearms there is the equal possibility that the headshell will not be plane parallel to the LP surface on any given day, just by random chance and due to limited visual acuity, even when the mounting is perfectly done. So it follows if the tonearm has provision for azimuth adjustment, one is almost obligated to determine correct azimuth and adjust for it. He may have something there.
