MC cartridge loading: still baffled

Jc, if your anti skate is not set correctly the unloaded channel will only miss track at higher groove velocities so at regular velocities things might sound sort of normal. But, there are more than tracking considerations. For the best performance/low distortion the coil (or magnet) should be placed symmetrically in the magnetic gap. With the anti skate set incorrectly the cantilever will drift to one side or the other and this will not be the case. Again, in the run out area, between the grooves the arm should drift VERY slowly towards the spindle. Use whatever weight or setting of your anti skate that accomplishes this. This will assure you of the lowest distortion, best channel separation and best tracking your cartridge can achieve when it hit the cannons in the 1812 Overture. 

It looks like there are some knowledgeable people on this thread, so I'll take the opportunity to add a few questions.

1. Can someone suggest a good test record?
2. Is tracking force adjustment for 33 rpm just as suitable for 45 rpm records.
3. Is the best tracking force for the outside of the record the same as for the inside and should tracking force be adjusted in the middle as a compromise?

1.  There are at least a dozen useful test LPs.  Depends upon what you want to test for. The Cardas LP is a good one to have.2. Yes.3. Are you kidding?

Another way to set AS: Start with the very lowest amount that your tonearm permits, but not zero.  Gradually increase from that starting point until you have no audible tracking distortion in the R channel.  (R channel distorts with zero AS, so you want the minimal AS that eliminates any such issue.)  Others will have other views.  This is no more nor no less vague than Mijo's method.

Both loading and anti-skate are set by ear. I only just recently learned the difference a small adjustment can make. Anti-skate on my Origin Live Conqueror is a ball hanging from a thread attached to a lever arm. A little set screw lets you slide and lock it in.

I’m guessing somewhere along the line that screw got loose and it slid out resulting in increased anti-skate.

Hard to say. Its not like there’s markings or anything.

Anyway, it never got far enough off for anything as obvious as breakup. I’ve always thought of that as the marker, and so assumed mine was fine.

Until gradually over the last few months I was getting this funny feeling the image was ever so slightly right shifted. Some vocals that I was sure had been rock solid dead center seemed just a tad to the right. I’m a freaking OCD stickler with speaker placement so that’s not it.

I started thinking. Its to the right. The right channel is the right side of the groove. Even without mistracking, too much pressure would have the coil ever so slightly off center. Well you can think or you can find out.

I found out. A little less and not only did the image shift that few inches, it locked in a good deal more solid too. Not like it was ever bad before. Far from it. Which is why I never tried before. Never, ever would have dreamed of setting anti-skate by ear like this before.

Its amazing the extent to which these things can be tuned with enough time and tweaking.