antiskate disc

The AR turntable was not my favorite.  From 1970 to 1980 I worked in high end hifi stores through college and when I was not at sea (I was in the Navy) and was a TT setup specialist.  The AR turntable wore out a lot of cartridges unevenly and the records it tortured.  I cannot say it was only because the thing did not have antiskate because the arm also had a lot of friction.  I owned one that I bought in 1969 before I understood it's limitations, but traded it for a Dual 1219 a year later, which actually had an excellent arm.  Then a couple of years later I traded it for a Thorens TD-125 MKII with a Rabco SL8E arm which I fought with for about 2 years before getting smart and switching the arm for an SME.  I still like that 3009 and have one on my VPI HW-19.  Some things are just right you know.  And some things are not.

Yeah, the AR XA tonearm had many more flaws than merely the absence of AS. But Vilchur was an articulate and erudite defender of it.

Clearly the XA bearings were primitive in terms of machining and design, especially the cockamamie vertical needlepoints with the silicone oil damping contraption. Later models like the 77XB I have used a simpler one piece part. I run an AT-71 on it and it tracks at 2 gr just fine. One of my 4 working turntables.