Setting anti-skate

Undertow, what you've done (adding the washer) has WAY increased the anti-skate force necessary for regular groove tracking. Take it off! Also, DO NOT exceed the manufacturer's max. recommended VTF, because that will force the coil out of alignment with the magnetic field (or if it's a MM cartridge, the magnetic field out of alignment with the coils).

Records are made with a raised edge (and center) to keep the groove area from touching other records when stacked up (like in a changer) so if you set the stylus down in this lead-in area with today's light tracking forces and sensitive arms, yes, it's going to slide or plow into the first track. You need to set the stylus down right in the first groove. And return all your AS and VTF settings to normal.

Doug,

Why are the widely spaced tracks better?

Rich

Dougdeacon...Setting antiskating using a highly modulated groove does make sense. Such a groove is when mistracking will occur. Less modulated grooves will be OK with antiskating a bit high.

Its not that widely spaced is better. The widely spaced tracks indicate that these are very highly modulated (in other words very difficult to track). So, presumably, if anti-skating is optimized, the cartridge will track better through these grooves. But I don't think I agree that trackability is the purpose of antiskating. Its an indirect by-product of the purpose: to provide equal force at both sides of the groove. So we need to come up with the best way to observe that equal force is indeed being applied, particularly for our favored low-compliance cartridges with which we cannot really see the deflection. What about installing a cheap high-compliance cartridge, and using it to calibrate the anti-skaing method? Track this cheapo at exactly our intended force, and note the deflection when the needle is dropped on the record, at various points on the record. Then adjust antiskate, and switch cartridges.

Using a record without grooves to check anti-skating is not "against the law of physics". Think about it a bit more. The friction of the record against the stylus tip is what causes an inward force upon the cartridge. Anti-skate attempts to balance this with an equal-and-opposite mechanical force. With no anti-skate, a grooveless record will pull the needle inwards, and this motion will be obvious. With too much, the mechanical force will pull it outwards. If these are equal, then the arm-and-cartridge will not move in either direction. This concept was well accepted in the 60s and 70s, exactly because it IS consistent with the physics of the forces applied. Now, is it perfectly accurate...no... because the friction of two groove walls is not identical to the friction of a flat surface. But if there is no force side-ways, because all side forces are equalized, then it is ONLY the down-force that is causing friction. Furthermore, think further. The variation of skating force must be extremely variable as the arm moves across the record, because velocity becomes slower as we approach the center and tracking angle varies. So, any mechanical anti-skate device cannot achieve accuracy across the entire record. Whatever we settle upon is a gross approximation, no matter how we measure it.