Overhang for Ortofon 2M Bronze on Rega RB301

Skating force is caused by the drag of the stylus in the groove during heavily modulated passages. If you are setting it by watching it on a blank disc, you are not setting anything. But at least you are having fun!

>>Huh??? Skating force caused by drag?<<

Skating is not the result of centripetal force in a tonearm. It is not the headshell that is spinning around, it is the record. And if it were centripetal force at work, the cart would be heading outward rather than toward the label.

Here is someone who knows more than both of us about the topic over at vinylengine.com

Quote:

Why do we need anti-skate? Passing the stylus through the record groove causes drag. If the cartridge were aligned straight down the arm and at a perfect tangent to the groove this force would act squarely on the bearings with no sideways component at all. But it doesn’t work like that. The cartridge is at an angle to the armtube to make the geometry work, so the drag force becomes a torque on the arm that’s translated into a movement towards the centre of the record. This torque is transmitted to the arm bearings, the cause of chatter in poor bearings. ...Setting up on a blank disc is not accurate because it doesn’t reflect the real drag value of the cartridge in the groove or an average value of the dynamic drag.

Good idea... From what I understand, drag/friction of the stylus in an actual groove is about 1.4 times higher than that produced by a blank record. Using the blank record as a "jumping point", once the stylus stops moving he could increase anti-skate by a factor of 1.4 times its current setting to get something that should work on an actual record.

For me, I just use a heavily-cut record with something strong in the left channel like a voice or trumpet. That usually gets the right channel to distort when anti-skate is too low. Harry James King James Version on Sheffield works good because there are some tracks where his trumpet is in the left channel only. Increase A/S until it tracks well. That record is probably the worst "torture test" in my collection so I don't need any more a/s than that.

I have no doubt your records and system sound great! Its all fun discussion.

So Bobgates, how is the Ortofon 2M Bronze working out? I don't know if I'm that crazy about the Shibata stylus in the Black and if I get a 2M it might just be the Bronze. How have you found it?