If it sounds 'great', everything is ok?

prior post: "as his tt is a Clearaudio with magnetic tone arm."

quick look at Verify Arm, anti-skate, pg 15, also from below.

https://clearaudio.de/_assets/_pdf/manuals/tonearms/CA_Verify_E+D.pdf?d=1667911999

when they say counterclockwise is weaker, I would interpret that -5 full turns is fully weak/ZERO

Why did you mention Rowen TT1? Is it a variation of Clearaudio? Made for them by Clearaudio?

https://www.rowen.ch/en/data/rowen_tt1.php

Confusion: Clearaudio has a TT1 arm .You don’t need anti-skate on Linear Tracking Tonearms

https://clearaudio.de/_assets/_pdf/manuals/tonearms/CA_Statement_TT1_E.pdf?d=1671461176

Just one teeny, weeny thing: Back up the thread, Elliott recommended to set AS to equal VTF or some high percentage of VTF.  With all respect to E, most agree that the AS force should be set to some small fraction of VTF.  In another concurrent thread, you can read where Mijostyn has calculated that AS should be precisely 11% of VTF.  I am not necessarily in agreement with his dogmatism on the subject, especially since he built a Rube Goldberg device to measure AS that none of the rest of us has, but I do agree that he is in the ballpark.  (Wally make an AS measuring device, too.) There are a lot of ways to set AS, but what I do is to first listen to a representative LP without any AS.  I typically hear distortion in the R channel with no AS.  I then add AS in very tiny increments only until that distortion disappears.  So you could say I do it by ear.  But VTF = AS in magnitude is definitely too much AS.

One problem I have with tonearms that have a dial setting for AS, usually marked in numbers from 0 to 5, or something like that, is that we don't know what those numbers mean.  The dial setting is typically found where AS is done magnetically. Do the numbers refer to "grams" of AS?  Or are the numbers to be correlated with grams of VTF, where 2g of VTF is to correlate with setting the dial to 2. Because 2g of AS, which is applied at the pivot is not equal to 2g applied at the headshell.  To me this is another reason to do it by ear.

@elliottbnewcombjr 

'Why did you mention Rowen TT1? Is it a variation of Clearaudio? Made for them by Clearaudio?'

Sorry for the confusion..

https://www.rowen.ch/en/index.php

ROWEN is a Swiss Company who brought his 'own' tt to the market. Basically, it is a Clearaudio Concept. But marketed as the ROWEN TT1. The only visible difference is the 'R' on the front of the tt.

ROWEN declares that they let Clearaudio develop and build the ROWEN TT1 according to ROWEN's ideas. ROWEN's contribution is the developpment of another frame and motor control system and has slightly modified the tone arm.

However, no further (technical) details are known or disclosed.

lewm

"Just one teeny, weeny thing: Back up the thread, Elliott recommended to set AS to equal VTF or some high percentage of VTF."

lewm,

either someone else, or maybe I worded something wrong,

but I use the Blank LP method, don’t even think about VTF, just start AS at zero, spin platter manually (easy with direct drive) watch the arm pull in (if it doesn’t there is something wrong), add anti-skate a bit at a time, checking in the two approximate null point locations, and set it with no outward force, consistently floating, or if needed to avoid ’out’ set it for a speck of inward pull, rather than a spec of out.

I don't look at VTA before or after, just the actual results.

I re-check perhaps monthly, to confirm both VTF, AS, and if removable headshell: view Azimuth from front with mirror method.

Dear Elliott, I cannot find where you might have written about the amount of AS relative to VTF, and I do see where you described how you arrive at a suitable setting, using a grooveless area on vinyl. Your method as described would be unlikely to arrive at an amount of AS very near to or equal to VTF. So, mea culpa. My mistake.

I would additionally remark that since the skating force is a result of friction between stylus and groove, I would prefer to set AS while the stylus is in the groove, because the friction force in a groove is likely to be different from the friction force on a flat area of vinyl. And I do it by ear not by watching the arm move toward the spindle. However, I know there is a school of thought, including some highly respected audio professionals, that recommends your method, so I am in no position to say I am right and all of them are wrong.