2. analog
  3. 1323616529

Anti Skating adjustment

Hi, I was reading a response to a thread concerning anti skating adjustment. I was hoping someone could give me some advise. I just recently purchased a retipped Monster Cable Genesis 1000MkII while I send my Sigmas Genesis 2000MkII for a new stylus. Anyway, when lowering the new cartridge down on a protractor the cantilever deflects left. I have checked and recheck table balance and azimuth in the horizontal plane. All appears ok. The antiskating seems not to affect the deflection while lowering the cartridge onto the protractor. I have adjust antiskating with the Cardas "balancing plateau" track as well as a Hi Fi News test record. The antiskating adjustment does impact the tonearm movement when rotating a record but not when just lowering the cartridge onto the protractor. When lowering onto a record the deflection is still there but less noticable.
The retipping appears to maybe have affected the compliance of the cartridge. My turntable is an extensively modified AR ES-1 with all of George Merrill mods with an delrin/acrylic clamp and aluminum periphery ring, the tonearm is an Audioquest PT-9.
yesfan3942
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Hi Pojuojuo, I agree with what Lew stated. But to have some
tangible orientation I use the Image HIFI test record with
tracking ability test. With 70 mu without any buzz from the
R. channel I am complete satisfy and this is in accordance
with an advice from Van den Hul from years ago.

Regards,
lewm
12,560 posts
 
Pojuojuo, I agree with you, a test LP with no grooves cannot generate any skating force that is like the skating force we are trying to cancel. Skating force is due to friction between the stylus tip and the groove walls, which is why it is a moving target (variable) throughout the course of playing an LP. No groove, no skating force. So, we all agree on that.
maclogan
49 posts
 
Lewm might agree with himself, but he now needs to explain how a non-adjusted cartridge/tonearm can skate across the surface of an ungrooved record. If he doesn't believe this he can try it. He needs to acquaint himself with the physics of frictional forces and the intracacies of vector algebra to avoid making totally incorrect statements like this. Note that my observation does not necessarily promote the use of ungrooved records to set the optimum anti-skating force.
timeltel
830 posts
 
Regards, Maclogan: It's called centripetal force, a concept that's been around almost since that famous event when the apple clonked Mr. Newton on the head. The engagement of the stylus in the groove contributes to additional friction, sometimes simple phenomena (or simple minds like mine) don't need to be distracted by algebraic formulas for comprehension. Otherwise I agree, we'd all do well to get our facts right.

Personal approach is to listen for the "phantom center channel", or when the stylus is equally involved with both sides of the groove. My stylus, records and ears thank me for doing so, it's much less wearing on all of them.

Have fun & seasons greetings.

Peace,
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
Anti skate can be set by ear. Find a record with some vocals and some decent dynamics. Then set the force to zero. This works best with someone helping you, but you can do it yourself if you're patient.

Listen to the right channel and you should hear it almost lower in dynamic volume than the left (a bit recessed). Slowly turn the tracking force up, I mean very slowly a wee bit at a time. Eventually you should start to hear the right channel coming up and getting closer to what the left channel is producing dynamically. Then as you get higher you should hear both channels sounding more dynamic and just better and better. Move the anti-skate up very slowly now.

At last you will hear a fairly dramatic drop off in the quality of both channels. You have now gone a wee bit too far. Back it off a notch and you have optomized your anti-skate.

Enjoy,
Bob
More to discover