What is more accurate: magnetic anti-skating, or barrel weight attached a fishline?

"I have read for years above the declining quality of vinyl used for LP pressings. "

During the 1970s oil embargo and price spike the major record labels responded by making "ultra thin" disks (120 gram or less?) and upping the percentage of recycled vinyl. To make matters worse most did not even bother to punch out the paper label before recycling. This resulted in little "hair like" fibers embedded in and sticking out of the grooves. I believe most of the vinyl used today is "virgin" vinyl. Most of the "clicks" and "pops" are probably due to pressing related issues.

@nandric 

Dear chakster, I prefer the Lustre 801. Excelent tonearm but with

mediocre lift construction. And, as Raul already recommended, the

counterweight(s) should be used in the usual way avoiding magnetic

VTF adjustment. This way the counterweight(s) can be get nearer to

the pivot.

Sorry for the off-top, but which silver external cable do you use with Lustre 801 ? I just managed to get missing counterweight "A" for my lustre and i hope soon the arm will be mounted on PD-444 turntable. The missing link is silver cable. 

Lewm said:

Ralph, I am saying that when the cantilever/stylus is tangent to the groove, the friction force generated by the stylus to groove resistance has a vector directed tangent to the groove, too.  But because the headshell is offset with respect to a straight line drawn from the cantilever to the pivot, there will still be a skating force due entirely to the headshell offset angle.  Interestingly, if you use an "underhung" tonearm (no off color pun intended) with zero headshell offset, then there can be only one null point on the surface of the LP with respect to tracking angle error, but at that one null point, skating force will also be zero, because the forces will line up with the pivot.

Tangency (null points) is not enough to eliminate skating force.  Lew says it quite well, but maybe it needs to be said a different way as well.

Skating force is the vector sum of the forces of the record "dragging the stylus in a generally forward direction".  Forces sum and  cancel each other.

The amount of drag and its direction is a function of groove friction and geometry.  The friction part is what makes it tricky, because this in turn, is a function of record velocity (changes across the record), the dynamics of the musical passage (varying resistance to larger "wiggles" in the groove), the condition of the vinyl, the shape and polish of the stylus, and ... I'm probably forgetting something, but you get the picture.

Here's a visualization that might help (and spare you the vector math):

• Hold your left arm out in front of you (horizontally) with your palm facing toward the right.
• Bend your wrist so your fingers point further to the right, so it resembles the headshell/cartridge offset.
• Have someone tug on your fingertip in a direction parallel to your bent hand.

This is our null point case.  Your hand will move to the right (skating force).

So, even at the null point, there's some skating force.

As Raul and others have correctly stated, there is no single correct anti-skate setting for your rig because of the frictional factors I mentioned in the third paragraph.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier  Design

Hi Stringreen,

Actually, lever based (gravity) anti-skate systems vary the force across the record due to the angular change of the weight (it's distance from the fulcrum relative to the downward force of gravity).  Designs with thread (string) like the Tri-Planar can be adjusted  somewhat to change the point at which the force engages, and sufficiently for the vaguaries of the unpredictable skating environment (is it hockey season yet?).

Given the unpredictability of skating forces, you can't really do better than this.  IOW, a perfect solution for a situation which can't predicted will ultimately be no better.  I don't want to speak on behalf of VPI, but I think this has been their philosophy all along.

Somewhat related to this ... some anti-skate designs can help stabilize a unipivot tonearm to a certain extent.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

To Stringreen.   Thank you for heads up about the recording of Kuijken's  performance of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"  I will have to check around possibly on Amazon and Discogs for the recording. I will assume if was an LP recording, not a CD.