Sunnyjim 8-1-2016 2:20pm edtJim, my perception over the years has been that questions about anti-skating almost invariably result in lengthy and impassioned discussions, often involving many of the same members, repeating the same things they’ve said in the past. So I’ll do likewise :-)
Thanks to all the members who responded. I never expected such an impassioned discussion over the anti-skating used on many turntables.
First, to add a bit of quantitative perspective to the many comments about the fact that skating force is different at different points on the record:
I use a vintage 1980s Magnepan Unitrac tonearm. (Which BTW uses the fishing line/weights in a bucket approach to anti-skating, with the weights being a fairly large quantity of tiny lead pellets). Over the years I’ve used a variety of cartridges all of which have relatively high compliance. Presently an Audio Technica AT-ART9 low output moving coil cartridge, and previously various incarnations of the Grace F9E and F9E Ruby moving magnet cartridges, as well as a Grado Reference Sonata moving iron. In every case I set the tracking force in the upper part of the range recommended by the manufacturer.
In every one of those cases I have found that a modest change in the applied anti-skating force (e.g., removing or adding something like 15% or so of the number of lead pellets) will result in easily perceivable left or right deflection of the cantilever as viewed from the front of the cartridge, while the stylus is in the groove of a rotating record, compared to the nominally straight ahead position the cantilever assumes when the stylus is lifted off of the record. (This assumes that a lightly modulated/soft musical passage is being played). (Too little anti-skating will result in deflection to the right, toward the outer edge of the record, while too much will result in deflection to the left, toward the center of the record).
Yet in every one of those cases I have been able to readily find an anti-skating setting that results in NO perceivable left or right deflection at ANY point on a record.
All of which would seem to say that the variation of skating force at different points on a record is not as great as some perhaps believe. And would also seem to say that the fact that skating force does not remain the same at different points on a record is not in itself a rationale for setting anti-skating to zero, or for ignoring it altogether.
Jim, related to all of that is the procedure I have used to set anti-skating over the years, which I described in my two posts dated 4-11-2016 in this thread. If your cartridge has medium to high compliance you may want to consider using it. (I suspect this procedure may not be useful for many or most cartridges having low compliance, because the cantilever may not deflect readily enough to make the procedure useful). At a minimum, though, I suggest that you perform the visual check I describe to help confirm that the adjustment you settle on is not severely out of whack.
Best regards,
-- Al