Help! Antiskate with only a weight...no dial, and she's skating away!
With only a few notches just try them all and listen for the one that sounds best, this worked for me with a Naim Aro anyway which has a similar arrangement. With a replicant stylus the VTA is pretty important to get right but you should haer when you land on the right setting, it might take some finding. |
Cabalska, a likely problem is that the arm was installed incorrectly or the hole for the arm is out of spec. You have to measure the overhang. Check Pro-Jects spec for that arm. If the arm is located too close to the spindle it will skate incessantly. It the arm tube is longer than it should be the same thing will happen. Otherwise you have been doing all the right things. On a groove-less record the arm should drift slowly towards the spindle at the end of the record. The anti skating force should be 10% of the VTF. The skating force will decrease slightly as you go towards the center of the record. It does not decrease at the null points. That is just lay instinct. If the arm is in spec then somebodies math is wrong and you just add weight until you get the right effect. Or you could tell Pro-Ject that the table is defective and you would like another one. Actually measuring the anti skating force is possible but the devices to do it are either expensive (the WallySkater) or unavailable (my Gizmo). Trying to gauge your particular problem with a test record would be difficult but you could try it. Lewm is correct in that without anti skating the right channel (outside) groove will miss-track and distort first, too much and the left or inside groove will distort first. Although anti skating is a ball park proposition it is extremely important for stylus and record wear not to mention sound quality. As the force drifts to far one way or the other it pushes the cantilever into a non-linear zone where moving the stylus one way takes more force than moving it the other. It also displaces the coils, magnet or iron out of the center of the magnetic gap. Any asymmetry is unfavorable for stereo reproduction. If there is a reason straight tangential arms sound better the lack of any skating forces is a more likely candidate than a reduction in tracking error. God luck in figuring it out. Most people would never have noticed there was a problem. |
Dear cab , it is not quite the case that “most“ of us do not think anti-skate is necessary. It seems to me that stringreen is the only one of us who consistently maintains that anti-skate is unnecessary, and he is using a VPI tonearm, which is notorious for its lack of an anti-skate device as originally conceived and for not seeming to require AS, possibly because its wiring pulls the arm wand outward enough to provide suitable AS force . After that, there are a few who are agnostic about anti-skate. But the fact remains that if you are using a conventional pivoted tonearm that places the stylus tip overhanging the spindle, inevitably there will be a skating force all across the LP. Whether that force causes audible distortion or not, for sure it is placing a stress on the cantilever and stylus that might eventually make itself known in the form of aberrant premature stylus wear. I would add that Mijostyn is incorrect in saying that the skating force diminishes gradually as the stylus moves toward the spindle, implying that the decay is linear from outer to inner. In fact the skating force is varying all the time in a nonlinear manner and is near or at maximum at the innermost grooves, depending upon the alignment used. Furthermore, I don’t know where he got the rule that anti-skate should be equal to 10% of the VTF, if one could measure AS. I guess he is taking measurements with his invention. But none of us has access to his invention, so for any of us it would be impossible to follow that rule. However, I agree with the sentiment that one should try to use the minimum amount of anti-skate that works to produce an undistorted sound and no visible deflection of the cantilever . I would not use a grooveless LP for anything. But you probably know all this stuff. You are wondering why your own particular antiskate device seems to be either malfunctioning or not functioning at all. From your descriptions, and your responses, I too am at a loss. |
@lewm , I did not say that skating will decrease linearly over the record. The force is waxing and waning depending on modulation. In average it decreases slightly towards the end of the record playing surface. If the arm could get to the spindle it would increase quite dramatically but not out in the run out groove. Skating is present everywhere and is in average substantial. As for the 10% of VTF that is not my figure. 9 to 11% is the range generally accepted by the industry and used to calibrate their devices. The Wallskater https://www.wallyanalog.com/wallyskater measures this in a clever (but expensive) way. I measure it directly just by turning the force 90 degrees into a stylus gauge. Not rocket science. I am taking it on faith that around 10% of VTF is a good place to be. It is a very difficult thing to ascertain. Just because a certain setting produces the lowest distortion on one test record does not mean it will do the same on any album. Somewhere in that area +- 10% seems reasonable. You can easily hear what happens if you stray to far one way or the other on any test record. At any rate it is nice to have a number to work to. That way I can make sure I am right on something I can not possibly be right on on? Don't get me started on VPI arms and no antiskating. That marketing stunt made sure I would never look at a VPI product. cabalaska, make sure that arm got mounted correctly and check the arm length and overhang!! |
