Anti-Skate dial-How to set it? + a bonus question


I bought a Hitachi SP-15 TT at a tag sale which also had a decent cartridge (Signet AMS-10 a MM). It has an Anti- Skate dial numbered 0-5. I am used to the little dangling wieght in tables from this era. Does anyone know where I should set it to, assume normal conditions.
Question 2. I have no tracking force scale either. With this issue I tried a couple of positions and settled on what seems like a light force. It yields the best details and creates the best soundstage.Will I miss out on something by keeping it on the light side?
My "bonus" question is- Do any of you change the downward force for a specific album or song to improve the sonics? Even if only once in a while it seems to make a big difference.
mechans

Showing 1 response by john_gordon

Stanwal said:
I would just get a Shure mechanical one; I have found the digital ones unreliable and prone to failure.
I have had both mechanical and electronic. I have bought electronic ones off ebay which didn't cost much and proved accurate enough and reliable.

Also regarding accuracy of anti-skate, Stanwal also said:
Some quite good arms did not have the anti skate calibrated correctly; the Grace 707 provided twice the necessary force if I remember. I would start with the minimum and slowly increase it if you think it necessary. Most of the time I use none at all; I have never even installed the AS part of my Graham 2.2.
So I'm not sure what he regards as the "correct" or "necessary" force.

Similarly for vtf if it is too light you risk mistracking, so most would advocate more rather than less.

Yet with no anti-skate mistracking is a distinct risk on the right channel, yet this is often recommended.

However, it is not the case that
No matter where you set it it will be wrong for most of the record anyway.
This is a common fallacy. To counteract the skating force you need around 20% of down force, in real terms (most calibrated arms use a scale which may attempt to provide this or another value, but is marked to correspond with VTF)

This anti-skate may indeed never be exactly correct, and might vary by a few per cent either way across the record. But using no anti-skate means leaving a residual skating force of much greater magnitude than the above error. If using no anti-skate sounds better, that doesn't mean skating forces don't exist. That is another question, and assumes that with a zero setting there is no drag in the internal wiring or other hidden outward acting forces, which can easily be the case with arms using insufficiently fine wire, especially if it doesn't exit as close as possible to the pivot.