Wally Tools to Offer a New Service.

In my experience Clearaudio cartridges have always been right on the money. I have owned and examined 4 of them. One of them was the one that lost it's diamond which was covered under warranty. The one Soundsmith I have is right on the money. The AT VM75ML that I put on the Sota when I sold it was not so good. It's SRA was about 89 degrees. I had to lift the back of the arm up quite a bit to compensate. Azimuth and zenith were fine. The Grado Statement that I used for years also had the SRA off by 2 degrees as well as the azimuth being off a degree or so requiring me to tilt the cartridge a bit.

Good question. Back in the day I must have returned at least 10 new cartridges because of cantilever stylus defects. My sense is that in general things are much better now but still examining every cartridge when it comes out of the box is a good idea. I know Elusive Disc will replace any cartridge that is remotely off. One degree of SRA error is not big deal and easy to correct for but I will not tolerate any azimuth or twist, excuse me, zenith error. I have not seen any for a while. I think the Grado was the last and I did not return that one for some reason I can't recall. 

The Transfiguration in the above article should never have made it out of the factory.

@testpilot , from the article it seems to be what they had in mind, a Wally certification process for high end cartridges. It would push the price higher but for many people this would be reassuring I suppose. I have been looking at styli for a while now and can not imagine having trouble getting a warranty replacement. When a Clearaudio cartridge lost it's stylus I just sent in a USB micrograph of a perfectly straight cantilever sans stylus and I was immediately sent a new cartridge along with a return label for the broken one. I had a new cartridge in 3 days.
A usb microscope is not that expensive and is handily the best way to set SRA. The biggest problem is making a stand that will hold the microscope in the right position to watch the action. You can not hand hold one, way too shaky. 
@cleeds, the definition I learned for zenith is the point in the sky directly over your head. I have no idea how that relates to horizontal tracking angle. Lateral tracking angle would probably be a better term but "twist"
is short and sweet even if nobody knows what I am talking about. It was the article that called the parameter "new." I was just paraphrasing. I have never seen a significantly twisted stylus bit that Transfiguration in the article is pitiful. I personally avoid cottage manufacturers and prefer sticking with the big guys even if I am missing some excellent cartridges. 

@cleeds , who am I to argue. I think somebody just likes catchy words with a "th" stuck on the end.

@pindac, absolutely, but please don't get in a conversation with rauliruegas, the two of you will drive us crazy:-)))

If we get critical enough with our microscopes and such the deluge of returned cartridges will keep the manufacturers honest. In my recent experience the major manufacturers do quite well, Ortofon, Clearaudio, and Soundsmith for certain. It is the cottage manufacturers who can't afford to waste a lot of stylus assemblies Like the now defunct Transfiguration that would worry me the most.

@lewm, that is called "crabbing." The airplane is flying on a vector to counter the wind. They actually crab at altitude also, whenever there is a cross wind. My brother is a pilot. In his Cessna you can feel it in the seat of your pants just like when you kick the a-s of your 911 out:-)  Zenith is straight up and the stylus is twisted on that axis like a plane crabbing. Twisted on it's zenith? Whatever.
The Schroder CB adjusts azimuth the same way. I like Soundsmith's solution. You have 3 stiff rubber logs that fit into slots in top of the cartridge. You can compress one side more than the other changing azimuth maybe a couple of degrees. I have not tried it yet as I still do not have a turntable. I'll report on it when I do.
@cleeds, You have to give pindac the benefit of the doubt. There is a language barrier as with rauliruegas. He means well.