Adjusting SRA using macro lens vs microscope

Doug, The Ortofon M20FL Super and the Azden P50VL (or something like that) are much improved with a bit of positive VTA. Also, back in the day I recall that my Grado TLZ also seemed to prefer slight positive VTA. (Paradoxically the bass response is cleaner, AND the highs are more extended, as a general description. The Grado just "snapped in" to focus at exactly the right height.) And these are not among the very best MMs or MIs that have been touted on Raul's site. I own a few of those latter too (Acutex, Empire, B&O, Audio Technica) but have not had occasion to audition them as one of my monoblock amplifiers has been down for repair for the last month. (Since it is I who must repair it, I have only myself to blame.) Yes, I went a bit nuts with these purchases, but each individual one was so inexpensive... It was hard to resist Raul's superlatives.

Doug and anyone else who might know, do you think it was ever thus with cartridges? I mean to ask whether it has long been a custom in the industry to set the cantilever/stylus angle such that by leveling the top surface of the cartridge body with respect to the platter, one is in the correct "ballpark" for SRA. I and many others have been messing about with vintage MM and MI cartridges, per Raul's endless thread, and many of us find that many of these cartridges sound best with more than a bit of "positive VTA", meaning that the tonearm pivot is raised with respect to the cartridge body, for best sonics. We are talking here about many cartridges that were very high end in their day. This phenomenon could in part be due to aging of the cantilever suspension, such that it has less flex than originally intended, but maybe not.