Anti skate. I think something's wrong

A simple method for setting anti-skating that I’ve found to work well, at least with cartridges having medium to high compliance (I have no experience with cartridges having low compliance), and which I’ve found to generally require little if any subsequent fine tuning by ear, is as follows:

1)Observe the cartridge from the front while it is in the groove of a rotating record, and positioned somewhere in the middle of the record.

2)Adjust anti-skating until deflection of the cantilever to one side (left or right) becomes barely perceptible, relative to its position when the stylus is lifted off of the record. Note the setting.

3)Adjust anti-skating until deflection of the cantilever to the other side (left or right) becomes barely perceptible, relative to its position when the stylus is lifted off of the record. Note the setting.

4)Set anti-skating to the mid-point between those settings.

5)Verify that no perceptible left or right deflection of the cantilever occurs near the beginning and near the end of the record.

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks, Fleib. Your post reminds me that I should have mentioned that the procedure I described should be performed during low volume musical passages, having minimal groove excursions.

Regards,
-- Al

Next thing we should discuss is the best way of lowering the arm on the record. So much talk for nothing.

I guess we shouldn't post any longer to this thread, because Inna is bored, but I was rather surprised to read that go4vinyl and Raul suggest the problem of unequal gain in one channel vs the other could be due to azimuth maladjustment.  In fact (this has been said many times too, Inna, so you can stop reading here), azimuth has very little effect on channel balance and adjusting azimuth is not a good way to address channel imbalance.

As to why the OP perceives that AS is affecting channel balance, it could be because badly out of whack AS is inducing distortions that are perceived as more or less output on the affected channel.  Just a guess. Cleaning all mechanical contact areas, as Raul did mention, is a good idea.

I agree with a few others who stated that AS should be adjusted while playing music with the stylus in the groove, not on the run-out or grooveless surface of an LP.  Since skating force is due to stylus friction in the groove, a smooth patch of vinyl does not generate a force that is representative of the problem.  Almarg's method for adjusting AS seems fine; I just don't have the patience or the visual acuity for that.  I am not quite in Stringreen's camp, either. I just set AS to the most minimal value possible, and then I forget about it.