Harry Weisfeld Was Right All Along

Great thead. My old HK/Rabco ST-8 (linear) tracked all four HFN antiskating tracks, although track 4 was pretty tough. The slight buzz on track 3 and very loud buzz on track 4 switched from L to R. Obviously it was mistracking generally without regard to (nonexistent) skating forces.

My new Teres 265/OL Silver/Shelter 901 handles track 4 better than the old linear arm, even using the same cartridge! It tracks all four test tracks easily, though there's fairly loud buzzing on the R channel during track 4.

On track 3, buzzing in the R channel can be minimized (not quite eliminated) by setting antiskate at the max, which is labelled for a VTF of 2g. Our actual VTF is 1.75g, so this is theoretically too much antiskate, particularly as OL's literature says the best antiskate setting should be LOWER than VTF. OTOH, when I put the stylus down in dead space in the runout area, it moves fairly quickly OUTWARD. This suggests I have too much antiskating force, but if I reduce it the test track buzz gets worse. Are these results as inconsistent as they seem to me? Any suggestions?

You must remember that the need for anti-skating changes with the stylus position on the record. It needs more at the area close to the label than at the outside. This is why most anti-skate systems are a compromise at best, anyway. There have been some arms that attempted to solve this progressive change problem, but I don't know if any were perfectly successful.

Skating force is only one of many critical adjustments necessary for a pivoting arm, most of which can only be optimized for one location on the LP. I finally decided that you can never get them all right, so I went to a linear tracking arm, which I find to be flawless.

Anti-skating force permits the pickup to track at a lower downforce setting. If you are willing to add a gram or so you can do without antiskating. Whether or not this causes greater wear depends on the quality and condition of the diamond.

Hi Plato,
I have a Wilson Benesch Nanotube one tonearm, similar to the WB 0.5. Does it fit in the Orbe hole for mounting or do you need some adaptor? Thank you very much.
Regards
Ffs

TWL - I don't think you're correct. Because the cartridge really tracks at a greater speed in the outer (away from the label) portion of the record, more anti-skate is needed there with gradually less as the record plays with nearly none at the label end.