Confused about compliance matching with airbearing

With cartridges of high 30-50 compliance it has been easy to see cantilever deflection in action, to hear the associated distortions, and to compensate by releveling the manifold to "center" the cantilever. I can't measure level accurately enough to know precisely where the optimal position is relative to true level, but I think it is with the manifold tilted slightly down toward the spindle to invoke gravity as compensation for lateral inertia. Then one should readjust azimuth...

With Trans-Fi a lightened sled improves the sound of a high-compliance cartridge, but this may also owe to superior damping properties of the low-mass carbon/foam construction of my lightened sled. I need to experiment with weighting this sled in order to separate these variables.

At the opposite extreme, Vic of Trans-Fi mentioned that with a low-compliance Denon 103 cartridge he tried weighting the sled with up to 100gm additional, and heard little difference.

Finally there is the impact on performance and wear of bearing friction-- which is presumably lower on an air bearing than on a pivot arm. This is a small force in either case, yet one more variable to add to the murk.

I can't comment on stylus wear, since of a half-dozen high-compliance cartridges in my possession none has exceeded several hundred hours.

Rcthweatt, The ET manual is a well-spring of technical information, but I am confused on the subject of horizontal mass. If I understand correctly, moving horizontal mass is 25-35gm wand+manifold, plus up to 40gms counterweights, plus optional 18gm damping trough.