Anti Skating adjustment


Hi, I was reading a response to a thread concerning anti skating adjustment. I was hoping someone could give me some advise. I just recently purchased a retipped Monster Cable Genesis 1000MkII while I send my Sigmas Genesis 2000MkII for a new stylus. Anyway, when lowering the new cartridge down on a protractor the cantilever deflects left. I have checked and recheck table balance and azimuth in the horizontal plane. All appears ok. The antiskating seems not to affect the deflection while lowering the cartridge onto the protractor. I have adjust antiskating with the Cardas "balancing plateau" track as well as a Hi Fi News test record. The antiskating adjustment does impact the tonearm movement when rotating a record but not when just lowering the cartridge onto the protractor. When lowering onto a record the deflection is still there but less noticable.
The retipping appears to maybe have affected the compliance of the cartridge. My turntable is an extensively modified AR ES-1 with all of George Merrill mods with an delrin/acrylic clamp and aluminum periphery ring, the tonearm is an Audioquest PT-9.
yesfan3942

Showing 1 response by john_gordon

The skating force that acts on a stylus to cause the arm to swing towards the spindle is generated by the friction between stylus and record. It acts along an axis which is tangent to the curve at the point where the stylus meets the record.

If there is no groove, then that simply means the amount and nature of the friction force is different depending on the stylus profile and how much, or how little, it digs into the blank record surface.

In other words the stylus will skate if there is VTF and the arm has overhang, unless something stops it.

The point to remember is that the stylus is stopped from skating by the inner groove, not constrained by the outer

When playing an LP, with enough VTF the stylus will stay in the groove, but there will still be unequal downforce on each channel. With antiskate applied, these forces can be equalised. That"s the way it is.

There is always a skating force. Depending on arm length and stylus, it will usually be from 10 to 30 % of VTF. The force varies across the record, so it might change from say 20 to 30 % of VTF from outer to inner groove in the case of a 9" arm.

If, with particular set ups, users prefer not to use antiskate, then they presumably feel the trade off is worth it. This doesn't mean there is no skating force.

The centripetal force In terms of the arm, which is the rotating part in this context, not the cartridge, would be that acting from stylus to arm pivot in reaction to its opposite component which is supplied by the friction on the stylus. The remaining component of that friction force acts to rotate the arm, and is the skating force we all know and love...