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Tonearm and Anti Skate Question

Hi, I have a question regarding the behavior of the tonearm on my Pro-ject Classic turntable.

Whenever I use the lifter to raise or lower the tonearm to/from the record, it always swings towards the outer edge of the record for a distance of about 1/2 inch to 1 inch. I have checked the level of my turntable with a leveler, and I have set the anti-skate setting based on the recommendation from the user manual. Sometimes when after playing the last song on the album, as the tonearm moves into the "no groove" zone near the center of the record, the tonearm gets pulled back and played the last few seconds of the record over and over.

I have tried all 3 settings of the anti skate and it still behaves the same. I finally removed the anti skate weight, and now the tonearm doesn’t swing out anymore. I can’t seem to hear any difference in sound quality at any anti skate settings or without anti skating at all.

Anyway, the question I have is whether anyone know what might be causing this tonearm behavior, and whether it is ok to run the turntable without any anti-skating setup. Will this damage my record if I do so?

Thanks in advance.
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Showing 1 response by millercarbon

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millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
The inside area where your arm is skipping is called the lead-out groove. If the arm is jumping out of the groove and skipping out that is too much anti-skate, no matter what anyone says. It is normal for anti-skate to pull the arm out a bit when cued up and down, but it should be much less than what you have. It is clear you have too much anti-skate. 

There is no right or wrong amount, this is something we set by ear. Some tone arm designers even omit this, saying essentially it is more trouble than it is worth. I don't agree, but neither do I think it is terribly critical. The vast majority of the time you will be able to play records just fine without it. 

One way to know if it is off, the inside of the groove is the L channel, outside is R. Skating forces pull the arm towards the spindle. So if there is no anti-skate you can expect to hear it first in breakup when louder passages cause the stylus to lose contact with the outer groove wall. If you hear breakup in the R channel then you need more anti-skate. If you hear breakup in the L channel then you have too much anti-skate. 

Finally, you want to be careful to cue up and down smoothly. If you cue up too fast the arm can bounce on the lift, and during the bounce anti-skate will pull it outwards. The last thing you can do is clean the rubber on the lift so it is less slippery.
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