Tri-Planar with no anti-skate?

Paul,

Glad to see you're enjoying this discovery. I did this a year or two ago and shared the results here. Several other owners confirmed what you're now hearing.

Depending on the cartridge, the LP and the tracking conditions, the weight of the bare dogleg doesn't always provide enough A/S for clean tracking. I described our solution, the O-rings Dan mentioned, in my 9-16-2006 post on this thread. We play with anywhere from 1 to 6 O-rings on the A/S dogleg. Other cartridge's requirements may vary, but that will give you a starting point.

While you're at it, read that whole thead from the top. Some (not all) of the tips I presented might help you get even more from this extraordinary tonearm. A couple tips won't apply if your TriPlanar is the latest model VII upgraded version, but they'll give you some perspective on Tri Mai's latest developments.

There are other tweaks which enhance performance still further, but you'll have to email me for those. They're a bit racy for a public forum! ;-)

Enjoy!
Doug

Lewm,

I set A/S by ear. That way it's optimized for any stylus and any tonearm. I think you should do the same.

To set A/S by ear you must first set VTF by ear (with A/S temporarily disengaged or set to zero).

Once VTF is optimal, increase A/S in *tiny* increments until you have no R channel mistracking even on very dynamic, difficult-to-track LP's. The amount you'll need will vary with the equipment and even from one record to another, but it will probably be less than indicated by the standard scale on some tonearms.

The TriPlanar has no A/S scale because Herb Papier understood that different cartridges track differently and that different records act differently. This makes any A/S scale arbitrary and essentially useless. Setting by listening is ultimately the best method and it teaches you more about your rig.

Good question SirSpeedy...

Doesn't setting antiskate, seperately from VTF, change the VTF value,necessitating an aditional re-check of VTF?

Certainly VTF and A/S are interactive, but IME adjusting A/S only occasionally alters VTF. The amount of lateral bias force we need is so tiny relative to downforce that this would be a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Consider this: if you applied enough downforce you could play almost any record with no A/S at all. It might sound like doo-doo but you'd have no mistracking. OTOH, no amount of A/S would let you play cleanly if VTF were insufficient.

For initial setup it helps to disengage A/S because it lets us find the cartridge's VTF mistracking point quickly, and that's the key to optimizing VTF. Once you've got VTF on the knife edge of perfection, a REALLY tough-to-track passage (piano stikes, big operatic solo, hard blown horn or sax) will demonstrate the need for A/S, since you're likely to get some R channel mistracking. (If you get mistracking on both channels you need more VTF, at least for that record.)

Ultimately you're right Mark, they do interact, but that's at the level of changing weather and changing LP's. For those willing to adjust every day or for every record they do have to optimized interactively. I did that the other night. A strong piano solo record needed more VTF and six O-rings on the A/S dogleg. Then a big cathedral organ record needed a hair less VTF but far less A/S, just two O-rings. Then a harpsichord record needed still less VTF and just one A/S O-ring. This interactivity is only for those willing to adjust for each LP. The differences are audible, but some would regard such frequent adjustment as insane. It lets us hear more of the music so we don't mind - but we're insane!

P.S. I should mention I've come around to your view on cartridge alignment. I leave A/S engaged at a typical value when aligning the cantilever on a protractor. It's likely the cantilever will adopt a similar angle during real play so that's how it should be aligned. Very belated thanks for that tip!

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Jtimothya,

The TriPlanar's A/S dogleg does have visual markers, a ridge every few mm along the dogleg where you slide the weight. They're not numbered but you could count them if you wanted. Using O-rings to fine tune both VTF and A/S gives us repeatable visual references. For example: I know I need somewhere between 1 and 6 A/S O-rings for any record, depending on the record.

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Glai,

No damping fluid here either. Tried it. Hated it. Dumped it.

I've heard rumors that some insane owners have actually removed their damping fluid troughs altogether. I would never encourage such irresponsible behavior of course, even if it does reduce resonances and notably lower the noise floor!

I'd have bought an Air Tangent, but it was so cheap it didn't even print out the VTA labels for each LP jacket! If I have to write them manually I might as well adjust them manually!

Yeah, we're nuts, but playing a harpsichord LP is still easier than playing the real thing. Real harpsichordists have to retune four octaves every time they turn on a lamp, because the room temperature changed! Compared with that, tweaking VTA/VTF/AntiSkate for each LP is child's play. :-)