INNER GROOVE DISTORTION

Wow! So many responses, much obliged friends. I am not going with the fatboy because of my problem! I did watch Peter Lederman and experimented with adding some anti-skating with some good results. When the tech from Overture Audio { who have been great } comes to swap out arms I won't let him leave until I am completely satisfied. I have too large an investment in this not to have great sound from the entire record. It's better but not like it should be. Really grateful to have access to so much knowledge Agoners.

I’ve never experienced IGD in any of my tables, with any of my cartridges. Not ever. Not in 50 years.  Whether conical, elliptical, hyper elliptical, LC, or Ridge Contact styli, I’ve never had it. Yes, other kinds of distortion from various problems, but never IGD. 

Currently i have 10 tables and 79 cartridges. But I always carefully align the carts in all axes, and I have always checked the performance of the antiskate when adjusting and checking out the table. I use a Lofgren B, DIN alignment. 

I will say that nearly everyone I've known that had IGD issues, failed to carefully and thoroughly check their table and cart. Nearly all could not answer questions about alignment.

I'm intrigued by the idea that the gimbaled fatboy is preferable to the uni-pivot. I await any experience/input. I listen mostly to classical and jazz but rock also. { Chick Corea says you can't label jazz as such anymore, but you know what I mean} As always, I appreciate the wisdom. Joe

For what it's worth, the bearing type would have nothing to do with the magnitude of the skating force, all other things being equal, or of the amount of anti-skate needed to correct distortion due to the skating force.  It's merely that with a unipivot, excessive skating force would tend to pull the azimuth off.  Whereas, with a gimbal type, the headshell cannot roll around its longitudinal axis, thus there can be no effect on azimuth.
And finally, I still say that excessive skating force or excessive anti-skate would cause distortion most noticeable in one of two channels, not both at the same time, and would not exclusively affect inner grooves.  Such errors should be noticeable all across the LP surface, to varying degrees depending upon the magnitude of the skating force at any point.

Hi Joe

I did watch Peter Lederman and experimented with adding some anti-skating with some good results.

So did you try lowering the stylus in between the runout grooves. What happened?

When the tech from Overture Audio { who have been great } comes to swap out arms I won’t let him leave until I am completely satisfied. I have too large an investment in this not to have great sound from the entire record.

He is going to put on a few records .Can’t do more than that. Your hearing while he is there - will not be in the same state as when you are alone, with friends, family, relaxed and listening. Just saying I used to do this for friends.

You can give a man a fish....or you can teach him to fish. In millercarbon’s case it seems a beer will do it. 8^0

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when someone posts as they have on your thread.

I hear no inner groove issue ...although the beginning of the record always sounds better than the end

That is describing inner groove distortion. No one on your thread seems to want to discuss the Elephant in the room. The Record.

There is a lot more vinyl, bigger grooves, at the beginning of a record. The grooves are much smaller at the end. The beginning of the record should be, based on physics, always sounding better at the beginning. How resolving ones room is (and their hearing) will factor into if one can hear this.

Due to the above - , "anything" that is going to impede the stylus travel, be it tonearm setup, alignment, antiskate, condition of record - will be heard more readily at the end. Another challenge for the vinyl audiophiles.

The above - the Inner Record Grooves - is Analog’s answer to - Digital Compression.

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Because my pivot arm’s cartridge is angled in (cocked in, as Peter from Soundsmith likes to say) - toward the spindle. The more friction in the groove (increased VTF) results in needing more anti skate. For this reason Peter’s test involving the Inner Groove test only goes so far.

Classical music - due to the varying levels of modulation (loudness) - is the biggest challenge against groove distortion and applying anti skate. We all are just trying to bring the distortion level down to a level that is bearable for us. And this "level" differs for all of us. JMO

Happy Listening and Merry Christmas to everyone.