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Anti-Skate

I run a Lyra Delos cartridge in an Alphason HR-100S tonearm atop a SOTA Sapphire turntable. Everything is leveled to the limits of my skill & eyesight with a couple small circular bubble levels.

Anyway, I’d noticed for a while that when I play a record the cantilever would angle slightly toward the record’s center. When I’d lift the needle, the cantilever would instantly go back to straight ahead. Inspired by my re-discovery of the Audiogon website I turned the lights up, grabbed a pair of tweezers and carefully relocated the Alphason’s anti-skate weight’s little hangman’s noose so that I got a bit more anti-skate force. Lo and behold, the cantilever no longer shifts right. And maybe I’m imagining it, but my ears tell me the sound stage is a little more precise and the sound is a bit more relaxed. I’ll let the psychologists and behaviorists weigh in.
edcyn
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
edcyn, If the cantilever was angled towards the center of the record it means you had too much anti skate compensation applied. The best way to adjust anti skate is with a test record like the Hi Fi News Test Record.
It has tracks specifically for adjusting anti skate. Any other way is simply guessing. The record has instructions on how to use these tracks. With the anti skate set up correctly the Delos will track better. This will lead to less distortion on heavily modulated tracks.

edcyn OP
1,876 posts
 
almarg -- I essentially did what you suggested no matter how verkochte my reasoning might have been. mijostyn -- I don’t think the cartridge ever mistracked for me, in any case. And I know what mistracking is, having spent plenty of days with a Denon 103 S on a mismatched, mediocre tonearm.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Like I said edcyn, it will track better. Better than it is now. Whatever now is. Your Denon was an extreme case.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
OP:
when I play a record the cantilever would angle slightly toward the record’s center.

OP (same one!):
Lo and behold, the cantilever no longer shifts right.
So which was it? Was it shifted toward the records center- ie to the left- or was it shifted to the right- away from center???
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