Antiskating fine adjustment

[marcok]

In these days I have made some checks on my TTs and
I would like to know how is possible to adjust anti skating
in the best way .
I know very well that this adjustment is a compromise ,
and so I have used this simple method :
( after studying many articles and speaking to some friends )
2/3 of the scale using a gooveless record .
I presume it could be a right solution .
Thank you for your suggestions
and again Merry Christmas

Ciao
Marco

 

[stuwee]

Hello Marco,

Are you speaking about the Thorens arm?

Anyway, I've always used the grooveless record to set mine as you mentioned. I have 2 albums that have no grooves and are perfectly flat (that part is important as you might already know). There are many folks who will say "you must have more movement towards the outside (arm moving towards the begining of the Lp) to have antiskating set right, and then others say more movement towards the end of the Lp...?!?!? Grrr, I know!!

There is no perfect way, I've found that setting the anti skating with no movement in the middle of a grooveless Lp and a pull** on the inner part of the Lp is best. My SME arm is a J shape. S shape and straight arms vary this.



** pull means the arm wants to go to the begining of the Lp when it's close to the center, push means it wants to go to the center (favoring the right or left groove).

This is all geometry which I really suck at , play with it Marco, trust your ears, you can't hurt the Lp adjusting Anti Skating, good luck! Craig

 

[marcok]

I spoke in general .
Anyway I have seen that Thorens tone arm ( TP 16 MkII ) and Linn Ittok are calibrated with
a lower value with a grooveless record ( about 1/3 less ) , while SME iii arm is perfect calibrated .
So I have used the scale Thorens and Linn , while I have set the Sme III at 1g instead 1.5 g.
It must be noticed that Thorens and Linn have magnetic antistaking , while SME has the weight .
I have also checked if the cantilever is perpendicular to the surface of the records using a led lamp .
In my opinion the sound is good both in outer and inner tracks of records .
Ciao
Marco

 

[8991XJ]

I haven't read lots of articles, but I don't understand how a single contact point of a smooth grooveless record is going to duplicate the dual contact points of the stylus in a modulated groove.

There are test records out there that have different levels of modulation of a low tone, say 400Hz and when playing these tracks one can easily hear the distortion of mistracking in one channel or the other if the a/s is not set properly. I use the CBS STR-112 test record.

But that method has its issues, too. How often does one listen to a 400Hz tone at that level of modulation? Anything different will have a different pull on the stylus and that pull on the stylus is what causes the need for anti-skate on a pivoted tonearm. So I agree with you that any method used and any a/s dialed in is just a compromise. I do not set anti-skate to the same as the tracking force on any of my turntables.

 

[Northwinds]

It's actually pretty simple. If the tonearm does not swing in or away from the spindle, the antiskate is set correctly. I would rather try it on a test record then chance a lateral needle scratch. Using a no groove section simply assures it is correct, using a groove does not insure you won't be slightly off and causing inner groove wear to a prized record (or excessive wear to the stylus on one side)