Zero Antiskate vs Stylus Wear


This article, based on a long term study, was “plagiarised” from another Forum. It’s quite an old article so apologies to “older heads” for whom this may be old news.
It comes from an era when light VTF = good, but was not necessarily true, however the basic principle of long term wear looks sound.
Styli were tested to destruction over their full lifecycle.

http://www.audiomods.co.uk/papers/kogen_skatingforce.PDF

Viewers may have to cut & paste but in the event of difficulty with the link I will give a brief summary :

Of 14 cartridge samples tested without bias, 9 of them suffered excessive wear on the inner groove. One was neutral and the remaining 4 were “outer wall”.
When bias compensation was applied to a group of 6 samples, the wear pattern that resulted was symmetrical.

Given the strong and logical argument that skating damages styli asymmetrically – and gives a skewed reading of the LP over time, the “deviations” are a concern i.e. why 4 of them behaved oppositely.
Poor bearings? Arm cable too stiff? Wrong geometry?

IMO most turntable enthusiasts considered it self evident that unilateral force would cause this type of wear pattern so we didn’t need to be told but documented study, even one as old as this, is always interesting.
The photograph of the spherical stylus is poorly resolved on this copy but it makes the point quite graphically.

Based on long term experience that the simplest things can affect the sound of a turntable, I cannot deny that the idea of “de-stressing” the cantilever by removing a poorly directed/located AS force IS attractive and may produce a degree of audible benefit…at first...(?!?!?!!!)
The doubter in me always asks the question : can a mechanical assembly successfully zero out all mechanical influence and give a pure result? (If true zero AS is the goal even arm damping might be prohibited?)

The principle of using excessive VTF (up to 50% more) to achieve the same “trackability”, without bias, it was suggested, merely accelerates the unilateral wear & tear with (presumably) commensurate damage to the LP(?)
The proposed compensation of up to ”50% extra VTF” sounded a bit excessive to me.
(I’d balk at applying more than 0.1g over maximum.)

Old as it is, I found this study mildly unsettling.
Comments and opinions are invited from both Zero-antiskate adherents and those who always use AS.
moonglum

Showing 2 responses by actusreus

Moonglum,

I just noticed this tread. As a VPI Classic owner, I found that the sound from table and my Lyra Delos is better with no anti-skate applied. I believe that's the overall consensus among VPI owners, as is Harry's opinion. I experimented with the anti-skating device and a test record, but varying the anti-skate force made no difference with the test record. I also have never noticed any cantilever deflection as the stylus hits the lead-in groove so I stopped worrying about this issue. It's possible that the tonearm wire (in my case silver Valhalla) provides just enough of anti-skate force to make any additional anti-skate unnecessary. I can't say for sure, but I think anti-skating is not a general yes or no proposition, but needs to be discussed and evaluated with regard to a particular tonearm set-up. That's why studies and tests such as the one you mention might be of some theoretical interest, but have little practical value. My 2 cents.
Moonglum,
You're welcome! And just to make it clear, I do not question whether skating forces are of concern or to be ignored. I'm certainly not going to argue against the laws of physics. I merely noted that certain designs, such as VPI, might be handling the issue in their own way, whatever it might be, a strategically positioned wire or twisted wire. If that is the case, the tests are of limited value if done with different designs. I'd still very much like to examine my stylus at some point to determine any wear due to the skating forces, but right now I'm just going to enjoy the music!