Sorry I dont get what the fuss is all about here I think you are being a bit pedantic ? Surely the part that is in contact with the record is the extreme end of the stylii, what shape is the end of the stylii, surely it is conicle if you look at it under a magnifying glass. So if you have an upturned cone in a vee shape groove and the cone shape remains in the vertical plane what effect has the horizontal angle of the tone arm got to do with possibly damaging the record groove ? I think there are two ways of looking at the angle of the tone arm, If you have a bent tone arm such that when it is cued up at the start then the cartridge/stylii appears tangential to the grooves. However when this shape of arm gets to the end of the record the cartridge/stylii is turned 'inwards'. The Stanton deck above just simply does the opposite, the tone arm cartridge/stylii will be turned 'outwards' as the record is cued up BUT the tone arm angle will improve and cartridge/stylii become tangential as the playing of the record progresses. The tone arm pivot point (opposite end to the stylii) is fixed therefore there will always be a sweep angle, this is obviously greater on an LP or a 12"