Cartridge Set Up Essentials

dodgealum, the DB System's protractor is the most accurate because it magnifies the error. It is also relatively inexpensive. You need a small pocket mirror to set the azimuth (steal one from your wife), a stylus brush,
a digital stylus gauge, A small bright light, a Hi Fi News Test Record and whatever small tools you need to tweak your tonearm, little screw drivers, allens, etc. The digital gauge is a bit more expensive but the manufacturers will now give you a recommended VTF down to 10ths of a gram because they know this VTF will settle the cantilever into the right position for optimal symmetry of the coils in the magnetic field and put the stylus at the right rake angle. While there are counterbalance scales that can get down to 10th's accurately I have never seen one that accurate for VTF setting and they would probably cost more than a digital gauge.
The test record is absolutely mandatory. You can not set the anti skate correctly without one. The scales on the tonearms are only estimations.
Even with my old eyes I do not need magnification to set azimuth with a mirror. Just a bright light should do it. You place the mirror on the platter then the stylus on the mirror (defeat your anti skate!) You adjust your azimuth until you get a perfectly symmetrical hour glass shape in the mirror. This method doubles the error and makes it easy to see when you are right on. Leveling the cartridge body is the wrong way to do this. You only care about the stylus and they are frequently not perfectly perpendicular to the body.

Good Luck and yell if you need help,
Mike  

Pops, AJ was quite the character. Basis is in Southern N.H not far from where I lived. A friend ( who has a Debut) and I would visit on occasion.
He almost got me to buy one of his turntables (gave me a great price on a mildly used unit) but young kids in private school kept me from doing it.
He left us a way too early (59 I think). So, all you young guys who think you are immortal get your cholesterol and blood pressure checked!

jtimothya, you do not do yourself a favor when you use terms like, "sonically astonishing." The difference between "Power On" and "Power Off" is "sonically astonishing." A degree or two of arc is not. I am sorry that you spent so much on the Feickert but the DB systems protractor is less than 1/2 the price and twice as accurate because due to it's geometry it magnifies the error allowing you to see it easier. It is a little finicky to use but once you get the hang of it it works brilliantly and on any tonearm and cartridge. The trick with the "landing spot" is to use an awl and put a little indent in the circle to keep the stylus in place. Not to large or it will swallow the end of the cantilever. I also put a dab of low viscosity cyanoacrylate in the indent then quickly wipe it of which stabilizes the indent so it does not get progressively larger with use.  

Gary, setting anti skate by ear is sort of whimsical. Skating effects mostly tracking ability. It increases tracking and wear on the Left, inside channel and reduces tracking but increases wear on the Right, outside channel. On low level passages everything might sound just fine. The miss-tracking will occur only on highly modulated passages where the distortion is harder to hear. Setting anti skate is always a ballpark affair depending on position on the record, stylus profile, VTF, groove modulation and god knows what else. Ideally one should shoot for the mean whatever that is? If you listen to Peter Ledermann and Frank Schroeder you set anti skate by getting a slow drift inward on the blank portion of the run out area. Ledermann's opposition to test records is that he feels they over modulate the groove to get the distortion meaning that you are optimizing the anti skate for highly modulated grooves and not the vast majority which are only moderately modulated. My own feeling on this is that on the Hi Fi News Test Record the anti skate test is in the middle of the record where groove speed and friction (skating force) are middle of the road and since it is tracking that we are worried why wouldn't you want to set the anti skate for the hardest to track passages?
When I use the test record the tonearm stays absolutely still in the run out area. If you get the vinyl of the Lumineer's Cleopatra the third side is blank which makes looking at drift much easier. Anyway, letting the arm drift in very slowly (backing off just a little from the setting you get with the test record) seems to be a legitimate way of setting for intermediate modulations. It is only plus or minus perhaps 5% of the total anti skate force applied so any way you can get it in the ballpark is just fine. 
So Gary, check your ear against the run out area test and see how it stacks up:)  

Jimothya, your taking too much testosterone. It was Peter Ledermann’s and Frank Schroeder’s advise to use the blank area. Two guys with far less experience than you have. And, if you could read correctly, I prefer to use a test record, my favorite being the Hi Fi News test record if you care to learn how to do this correctly.