Anti-skating question

Well stated, Kevin and Albert.

Good info here guys. Thanks for taking the time to post it. Any suggestions as to good discs that you could use when initially setting up a vinyl rig ? What do you consider "too high" of a tracking force in terms of record wear ? I think my current cartridge calls for appr. 1.75 to 2.0 grams, which used to worry me quite a bit. Sean >

Thanks very much for the replies, folks. My puzzlement is that I’ve had to set anti-skating to less than what I’d expected, not more. To illustrate: Tracking force is 1.9 grams, at the high end of manufacturer’s suggested range. Using the visual, grooveless record method, I set anti-skating to a certain level. When I put on the test record (has four tracks with signal stepped up in amplitude to gauge anti-skating), this setting results in the left channel starting to mistrack before right channel, and I have to reduce anti-skating to achieve balanced L-R tracking. This is the opposite of what I would have expected. ………. Well, this really is mostly just intellectual curiousity. With so many geometric factors at work, it’s a puzzle. The setup is checking out OK according to the test record (with possible exception of azimuth, which may need fine-tuning of such a small degree that it might drive me crazy to attempt on a Rega arm), and the setup is sounding fine and balanced when playing real music. I’ll just continue to listen as the cartridge breaks in. If anyone wants to comment further, I’ll read with interest.

Sean, the record I mentioned in my original post covers the setup bases. One source for the record is MusicDirect. As for vinyl wear, I wouldn't consider anything up to 2 g to be a problem at all if your stylus is in good shape and the arm is tracking well.

A bit off topic, but does anybody know of a website with turntable setup help/advice?