Stylus shape?

With elliptical stylus? Yes!

No, it's Super Elliptical (often called Hyper Elliptical by other manufacturers) 

The shape of the stylus related not only to the better sound, but also to less record wear and longer life-span of the stylus itself. 

1) Conventional stylus is Spherical/Conical and Elliptical.

2) Advanced styli are: Hyper Elliptical, Shibata, Line Contact, Micro Line, Fine Line, Stereohedron, Micro Ridge, S.A.S., Van den Hul, Fritz Gyger, Replicant-100 .... and more.  

there are different names because of the different registered patent for each of them, in reality some of them are nearly identical to each other but registered under different patent. Look at this image. 

Advanced profiles are much more expensive.

Proper alignment of advanced stylus profile is not so difficult, manufacturers always give us recommended tracking force, the rest is just the same as with any profile (azimuth, overhang, tonearm vta).

Tonearm without adjustable VTA is junk if it wasn’t designed for one dedicated cartridge.

Azimuth adjustment can be made with a proper headshell with adjustable azimuth and overhang.

Protractor like Dr. Feickert NG is a must have for proper alignments (Baerwald, Lofrgen, Stevenson).

Everything can be adjusted if your vision is fine without any special devices.

Don’t be afraid to use advanced profiles.

back in the 70's, the 'shibata' stylus was pretty popular. where doe's it stand today? or is it still available??

Great profile, some of the best LOMC cartridges like Miyajima comes with Shibata profile today. 

Well, Nandric always referring to MC design. 
But MM/MI cartridge manufacturers often making one cartridge with different styli (user replaceable), on the same cartridge body the advanced stylus profile will be better. Ortofon did it, Grado did it, Grace did it ...  

That is how you learned from
your older brother wich one to buy (grin).

It is true

p.s. I feel that everyone is older here :)