INNER GROOVE DISTORTION

Has anyone remarked that is experiencing inner groove distortion, if at at the end of a record....does the arm move steadily toward the end of it's travel and stay there?

Ct, My question was a simple one, I thought.  You named the following as factors that impede the stylus: "tonearm setup, alignment [which is really the same thing], antiskate, condition of record".  A lot of this depends upon how you look at it, but I would say that tonearm setup/alignment, and antiskate do not impede the stylus, unless any of those factors was impossibly cockeyed. Of course, as you say, friction between stylus and groove is the major impediment and the root cause of the skating force, and probably groove tortuosity due to complexity of the encoded musical signal adds to the effect of friction. Plus dirt.

My earlier question may seem simplistic but, really this is simplistic. If your tonearm moves steady toward the label and doesn't, at all want to bounce back, your anti-skate set-up is very good. Cross that off your list.