Graham Phantom Anti-Skate. Is it effective at all?

Ok, well there is probably some user error here on my part. I gave it another go and was able to get "close" to the desired anti-skate compensation by having the counterweight dangling at the end of the stick (max amount). This is with a Koetsu tracking at 1.95 grams -- the manual states that the anti-skate range will support up to 3g (or more) of VTF. That's not what I'm seeing, but then the stock VTF counterweight should also be good for up to 13g cartridges, and that's also not what I've observed, unless my Koetsus are heavier than their reported 13g (and it's not close enough for mounting hardware to cause the discrepancy) -- I had to get the extra counterweight. As with that, perhaps I need a heavier anti-skate weight. Maybe the 10" wand is causing the discrepancies here? I know Graham recommends the 9", but I got the 10" due to reports of clearance issues with the 9" used in conjunction with a ring clamp. But now I want to try a 9" wand and see if that's a better compromise, overall.

Hi Benjie,
I've definitely set the correct pivot-to-spindle distance on my Clearaudio
(adjustable arm pod) for the 10" wand. This is made foolproof by the Graham,
with the spindle attachment and headshell cutout hole. I've also adjusted for
the correct overhang via the Graham headshell jig (each provided jig is
specific to a wand length, and I verified that mine has a "10" printed on it),
and that too is foolproof -- however I was surprised that this results in a
Koetsu sitting as far back in the shell as possible. These distances have been
re-checked multiple times. I'm just surprised to have to adjust a couple of
parameters to the limit, and figured this was a quirk of the 10" wand when
combined with a Koetsu. I assume that a Phantom with 12" wand would ship
with a bigger (or the extra) VTF counterweight, but not the 10" which my arm
was indeed shipped with -- this was not a used market mix-and-match job.

I know the anti-skate is a hot topic of debate, and that it's all an
approximation over the surface of a record. I prefer to err on the side of a
little too little. I just don't want the needle smashed up against the inner
groove wall (i.e. no compensation); I know whole-record perfection with a
pivoted arm is not attainable. The method I described was recommended in a
post by SoundSmith.

Here is the anti-skate post by Peter Ledermann to which I refer:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/96/960382.html

Benjie, your method sounds very good, but with a low compliance cart like the Koetsu (maybe ~ 10 when converted to the @ 10Hz standard used by your Benz) I think it will be harder than usual to spot deflections.

I just measured the distance from spindle-to-pivot as 230mm. Graham doesn't seem to publish this info (since well, the setup is so easy and does not require manual measurements), but at least this seems reasonably sane because this is exactly the published distance for my FR64fx, also a 10" arm.

Thanks Moonglum,
That does correlate pretty well to what I'm observing, since I'm running a higher
VTF. Thanks for the sanity check! It would be great to hear from 10" wand
Koetsu users, but I imagine that's going to be very rare -- so it's great to get 9"
wand experiences as well.

Benjie,
Thanks for the warning on the Graham fixture...I'd started to suspect as much,
which is why I double-checked to ensure I didn't accidentally get the 9"
version (it is the 10" version). I have the AVID universal alignment tool, but
I'm not sure whether that's applicable for this darn 10" wand -- did a quick
check on the AVID (carefully aimed it at the arm pivot), and it wants the cart even
FURTHER back than it can possibly go (by a few mm), which can't be right.
Starting to regret that 10" choice. I guess it's time to look at a Feickert or
AccuTrack! And maybe a 9" wand -- I can be super careful with the ring clamp
for the sake of better alignment. Ugh, and now I'm not gonna run the system
until I get this figured out...bummer!

Thanks to all who have contributed information thus far. I'm sorry things got a
little heated in a particular subthread-- to those participants, I respect both of
you and appreciate the posts/contributions you've each made to the various
online audio forums.

I do have a Supreme II model, so hopefully my alignment from the headshell jig
is not too far off -- though there is some wiggle room on that jig, which
accounts for a margin of error on its own. A Mint protractor is looking pretty
good right about now...

Well this thread was resurrected lol. I’ve moved on from my Graham to a Fidelity Research FR64S arm for my Koetsu cartridges, and FR64fx for my back arm (the Graham sounded good but the 64S is notably better). On both of these FR arms, the anti-skating mechanism is obvious and effective - push down (carefully) on the weight, and the arm skates inwards, in a VERY sensitive fashion. On the Graham Phantom II Supreme, when you push down on its anti-skate weight (even with the weight adjusted for maximum leverage) you get virtually NOTHING - literally, almost no movement at all. Kind of like the pulley thread’s attachment point to the main bearing housing is in the wrong place (and not just by a mm or two - more like, way a lot off). I guess they could say the anti-skate mechanism only works dynamically when in-use because of the MagnaGlide system (yada yada), but quite honestly I don’t see how that makes a significant difference at all. Anyways, it’s quite easy to vastly over-adjust on the FR arms so that the stylus starts skating OUTWARDS on blanks, and with the Graham even at max setting it was not clear to have ANY effect at all towards slowing the inwards skate. It seems a lot more likely that the anti-skate system was attached wrong. Perhaps it’s just my unit, or perhaps it’s that model. BTW the main bearing is perfectly smooth and friction-free, and the magnaglide is correctly aligned and does a wonderful job stabilizing the unipivot; that’s not the problem. I think it’s become pretty clear the problem is isolated to the anti-skate mechanism.

Also I didn't intend for this to become a holy war on anti-skate philosophies, lol. Mine is that some is better than none, but it's better to use too little of it than too much. It just bugged me that my Graham arm seemingly couldn't apply any effective anti-skate force at all.