Doug Deacon has provided excellent advice on setting antiskating. If the advice still seems a bit daunting because of the subjective aspect of determining the result of changes, I have a bit more "objective" way of setting antiskating.
If you can find a test record with a monophonic test track of musical instruments being played at increasingly higher volume/groove modulation you can easily hear the result of mistracking. I use an old Shure ERA IV test record, but there are other test records available for this purpose.
If the antiskating is off, one channel will mistrack before the other. The breakup (notes becoming fuzzy or a distinct sibilant buzz will be clearly heard from that channel. If it is the right channel, it means that the stylus is losing contact first with the right groove and MORE antiskating is needed; if the left, then less antiskating. You can easily replay the tracks to hear the result of your adjustment. When both tracks are about even when it comes to mistracking, the stylus force has been balanced between the two channels.
In my own personal experience, I have found that much LESS antiskating compensation is needed that the rough guidelines supplied by arm manufacturers. Perhaps this is the result of the kind of cartridges I use (for at least the past 15 years I have only used cartridges with line contact styli). The point is, one cannot rely on rough guidelines merely based on tracking force.
If you can find a test record with a monophonic test track of musical instruments being played at increasingly higher volume/groove modulation you can easily hear the result of mistracking. I use an old Shure ERA IV test record, but there are other test records available for this purpose.
If the antiskating is off, one channel will mistrack before the other. The breakup (notes becoming fuzzy or a distinct sibilant buzz will be clearly heard from that channel. If it is the right channel, it means that the stylus is losing contact first with the right groove and MORE antiskating is needed; if the left, then less antiskating. You can easily replay the tracks to hear the result of your adjustment. When both tracks are about even when it comes to mistracking, the stylus force has been balanced between the two channels.
In my own personal experience, I have found that much LESS antiskating compensation is needed that the rough guidelines supplied by arm manufacturers. Perhaps this is the result of the kind of cartridges I use (for at least the past 15 years I have only used cartridges with line contact styli). The point is, one cannot rely on rough guidelines merely based on tracking force.