I got my carts and tools. All the tools are valuable in their own way. The Zenith protractor is great. Very easy to read and use. The wally tool that goes on the bottom of the headshell is also a great device.
My tone arm is a poor design in some ways. I like the way it has a point riding in 3 balls to reduce chatter while allowing it to have azimuth adjustments. But, Vertere has no reference line in the weight and no reference line in the shaft. I spent close to 30 minutes with a 114mm straw across the head trying to get the azimuth angle perfectly flat. Its still not perfect. Vertere seems to have a new weight with a screw through it. That may help, but its been over a week and 3 email to 2 different people and they appear to want 0 to do with me. My representative and friend Joe Pitman passed away 6 weeks ago. I have no support. I sort of want to crap can the arm. Anyhow, when I get to touching the arm again, I won't use the shim. There is no need. The analysed cartridge report tells you how many degree to use to set the SRA with the wally reference tool. The Zenith doesn't care if you use a shim or not. If your tone arm does not have Azimuth, then the shim is great. Since I know with a 114 mm tube that every 2mm side to side = 1* azimuth, its possible to set. Its a pain in the you know what with my arm. But it is no harder than trying to get it flat.
I won't say the skies opened and the angels horns trumpeted through. I noticed the playback is a little more clean. The bass is definitely more balanced and deeper. When I was sitting late at night with my wife and the music was low I was aware voices are more intelligible.
Being that it is not a massive change brings more credibility to getting your cartridge analysed. I have had 2 pro at my house setting up the cartridge. Neither even considered Zenith. Azimuth was just shooting in the dark. Especially when you have to deal with the affect of tracking force on what you perceive or neasure as azimuth.
Setting up the cart with all my lost time in getting the azimuth flat was incredibly fast. You know the SRA, Zenith and Azimuth. I can't see how to set a cart up properly without having it analysed. Your guessing.
With a good arm and an analysed cartridge, I think you can set it up dead on accurate in 30 to 40 minutes. If you want, you can fuss and measure after that to double check the results.