millercarbon,
I agree: there's so much time, effort and expertise required for managing a vinyl playback system that sometimes it hardly seems worthwhile. Nonetheless, having a large vinyl collection (and occasionally giving in to the urge to buy a special LP), I continue to use and enjoy the medium despite the trouble and the cost.
I've acquired a Swedish Inogon Combination Level and Angle Reader which is reputed to be highly accurate. Using that, I confirmed my turntable is about 1 degree off from perfect horizontal and (interestingly) the reading perfectly matches the free iPhone leveling app's reading! In my humble system, I doubt that the small deviation from absolute level will be audible...I hope!
Keith