DaVinci tonearm and azymuth

Never had that problem, but I would send it back for repair.

Agree with Syntax. If it's truly the arm that's out and not the cartridge, get it fixed. If it's visible to you, it was visible to the builder. IMO there's no reason to accept clearly visible inaccuracies at this price point. You can get those on a Rega.

Azimuth affects more than L/R channel balance. That isn't even the main thing it affects. As good as the DaVinci arms are, the lack of adjustable azimuth would be an annoyance for me. But Halcro already knows I'm one o' them purists! ;-)

Dear Halcro, you can not compensate azimuth offset with balance control. Azimuth offset means - always! - a misalignment of the stylus towards BOTH groove walls. This has to be fixed at the source. You can mask the sonic result to some degree (in fact only the channel imbalance.. ) with the balance control, but the problem remains and it will shorten both - the life-time of your stylus AND records.
Aside from the sonic presentation (soundstage width and depth and high frequency reproduction) which does suffer too.
To fix this issue, do get AND use very thin plastic washers (sometimes part of cartridge screws by-pack assembly) to eliminate the problem where it occurs.

Greetings to sunny Australia - its 6 degrees below zero here at my place....
D.

Psag,
With the azimuth off, is one side louder than the other, or is the soundstage shifted to one side?
rgds
alec

Alectiong,

Since Psag hasn't adjusted his azimuth he may not be able to identify what effects it has.

Azimuth inaccuracy has all the effects Dertonarm described and it also has a major influence on L-to-R image focus. I used to take electronic crosstalk measurements to adjust azimuth. With practice, I've learned to adjust just as accurately by listening. Image focus (tight vs. fat) changes more than the soundstage shifts, at least IME.

Optimal adjustment needs to be much finer than is possible with headshell shims, but if that's all your arm allows AND it's visibly off, they're certainly better than nothing.