Checking Anti-Skate?

Can't answer what I don't know. Thanks for the laser info. I think I'll give it a try.

Buscis,
Setting anti-skating force is not an exact science. WallySkater is probably the most well known device. I have not used it because it is pricy. The next best solution is to use a test record like the one from HiFi News and Review (HFNR). But again, it is not an exact science but you should be able to achieve better results than using a blank record.

You might want to do a search on the HFNR test record. It has been discussed before.

1. See the thornes white paper on antiskating. The correct value is 14% of the tracking force.

or

2. Use the Wally tractor method. This equates to approximately 12% of tracking force.

Hope this helps, both methods are valid and work.

Another method is to listen for the best soundstage. Start with too little and work your way up. When you get enough antiskate, the image will "bloom" noticeably.

Skating force depends on a whole lot of things...where you are on the record...groove modulation...vertical tracking force, and more. You can only set it for best overall results. (That's why linear tracking arms were invented).

Shure put out a test record specifically designed for testing phono pickup performance. Beg, borrow or steal the record, or buy it if it is still made, and use it to optimize all variables of pickup installation.

In my experience the main benefit of antiskating force is to permit the pickup to track at a lower downforce. If you increase the downforce a bit most good pickups will track OK without any antiskating, but that isn't good for the record. When I first got into this hobby good pickups typically used 5 to 6 grams of downforce, and few arms had any provision for antiskating.