A new way of adjusting anti skate!

Hi ninetynine. Measuring anti-skating force using a multivariate test as it seems you may be doing with a test record and an analysis of the electrical signal is fraught with many problems. Like a mosquito at a nudist colony beach, I'm not even sure where to begin!

Measuring crosstalk is the one and only multivariate test that I will allow done - and only because there is no alternative. This is because SO MANY things need to be right before you can trust the validity of the data you get from these multivariate analyses.

However, I have done a study of the cutterhead stylus alignments on the azimuth axis on 9 different test records and can confidently report that this industry is a bit of a mess. This industry has the technology to make styli that truly replicate the cutterhead stylus contact profile (Shibata was NEVER one of those) and equipment that can reveal the finest iota of information from the groove when all parameters are in alignment, yet the engineers making our test records - that we must trust to use to align our styli by - can't agree with each other by a factor of several magnitudes of unforgivable. We will be releasing data in our own study soon. 

I think we’re talking past each other. But I’ll take a look at your attachment.

Regards:

Published to AES, 1967: "The Skating-Force Phenomenon. What it is, how it's measured, and its influence on performance of modern, lightweight phono cartridges." JAMES H. KOGEN ...

6 pages

PDF, copy/paste Google search:  "1967 paper by Shure’s Chief Engineer James Kogen." 

Found at audio-creative.nl. 

* Skating decreases towards the spindle as centripetal force (est. influence  elsewhere @ 5%) increases.

* Downforce, stylus profile, depth of groove and groove velocity are factors. (Spindle to pivot distance is a consideration.) 

* Increasing or decreasing skating force will influence wear to either inner or outer grooves, as well as wear to either the left or right bearing surface of the stylus. 

(Wallytools- Shure devised a neat tonearm mounted device to measure skating. It's described in the Kogan paper.)

Conrad Hoffman has thoughts on the subject, http://www.conradhoffman.com/AntiSkate.htm

Descartes on First Principles: "It will accordingly be necessary thereafter to endeavor so to deduce from those principles the knowledge of the things that depend on them," Although Descartes never spun an LP it is likely the philosopher would agree that although it might fit many, one shoe doesn't fit every foot.

When skating is balanced, left and right channels are hypothetically equally amplified. The "phantom center channel" phenomena emerges. Very minor adjustments to anti-skating will move soundstage center left or right.

Through the early 1970's, VTA at 15* was typical. Sometime around 1974 (IIRC) 22* VTA as standard was agreed on. Later investigation found there was still a discrepancy of several degrees VTA/SRA from one manufacturer to another.  As with correctly aligning an advanced profile stylus, azimuth or SRA may vary. Stylus to cantilever fitting is not always precise. Setup by the book is sometimes an approximation, none the less a good place to begin. Presuming ones gear is in good condition, listening and knowing what to listen for should confirm the best practical application. 

Peace,

Timeltel, it’s great to hear from you. Hope you’ll stay around.

what with all it’s problems, drawbacks, and impractical aspects, it’s a wonder how good vinyl can be.

Dear Wally, From your excellent videos (excellent in terms of clarity and presentation), I get that when the line from the pivot to the stylus is perpendicular to a line drawn on the radius of the LP, there will be no tracking force. That is exactly what happens at the single null point one can achieve with an underhung tonearm. I also get your evidence that headshell offset angle has nothing to do with the skating force, but that is shown for a spherical stylus on a groove-less LP. (By the way, where did you get what appears to be a Columbia 6-eye LP with no grooves?)

Have you repeated the experiments with either a non-spherical stylus or an LP with grooves, say a 1kHz steady signal? I realize that with grooves one would not so easily be able to visualize the skating force. As to the video in Russian, the set-up is cool but the dialog is unintelligible to me.

Where did I miss your definition of "Effective Moment Arm"? I haven’t a clue.

From the point of view of pure physics, I still don’t see why an overhung tonearm with an offset headshell, aligned according to any of the popular algorithms, would not exhibit a skating force at either of its two null points that is for that moment due only to headshell offset angle. Maybe you need grooves and/or a non-spherical stylus tip to show that. I do agree with you that a lot of so-called authorities have run to far with that ball, saying that headshell offset is THE cause of skating, which I agree it is not.