tonearm questions

Nsgarch,,
As always, thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge. I got the damper, mainly as it give me the ability to more easily adjust the VTA. I'll look at the article you posted. Interestingly, I use a Thorens Q up for lifting the arm at the end of the lead out spiral, and have never noticed a problem there. I have had problems with the stylus skating in from the lean in spiral, even though, I seem to have all my adjustments properly set up...

Thanks,
Dave

I have had problems with the stylus skating in from the lean in spiral, even though, I seem to have all my adjustments properly set up...

Dave,
This is normal for any properly set up arm with high quality bearings, which your IV certainly has. Four factors combine to cause this behavior:

1. the stylus is more likely to touch down onto bare vinyl than hit the groove, so there are no sidewalls to resist lateral movement;

2. the instant the stylus contacts spinning vinyl, skating forces try to pull the arm inward

3. most LP's have an inward sloping lead-in ramp, so gravity is reinforcing the inward tendency;

4. high quality bearings present little resistance to arm movement (arms with rough, tight or sticky bearings have enough friction to mask this situation, which is why people moving to a top level arm from cheaper ones are often surprised or think they've misadjusted something).

There is no adjustment you can reasonably make to counteract this. Increasing antiskate to very high levels would prevent it, but that would be far too much antiskate for proper performance once the stylus finds the groove.

The "cure" is to cue slowly, carefully and purposefully. Don't just flip the cueing lever and walk away. Maintain control of the arm during cueing and listen for the stylus to find the groove. Once it does it's safe to release or push the cueing lever all the way down. This is especially tricky on edge-warped records BTW. Practice on flat ones first.

Doug

Good info here from Neal and Doug. I have found that some of my lp's just defy cuing without falling into the groove with a bit of a jolt.

Just me or do you guys have a few of these records as well?

ALWAYS drop the stylus into the first groove and not into the lead-in spiral -- for all the reasons Doug says. Yes it requires eyesight (glasses?) and a little practice -- but any decent engineer has cut a few seconds of silence into the first track, so you won't miss anything once you get the hang of it.

Rolloff, maybe I misunderstood. Did you add the curved horizontal damping trough? -- the one that comes standard on the SME V, or are you talking about something else? (I don't understand how it helps with VTA for instance.)

Also the SME IV comes with a damped cueing lever, so why would you need the Thorens Q up -- or is it an automatic device for convenience?

Doug,
Thanks for your reply. I have been very carefully placing the stylus onto the lead in spiral. I'll try your suggestion of placing the stylus in one of the first grooves instead.
Also, call me stupid, but I always figured that anti skating worked in the opposite direction. It seemed, that if I were a stylus, riding in a groove, centrifugal force would tend to spin me towards the outer edge of the record, so I figured anti-skating would counteract this, by exerting some inward counterbalancing force. What you're saying is that the opposite is true. Yes?
Nsgarch,
Yes, I purchased the curved horizontal damping trough. It comes with an adjuster for easily raising or lowering the VTA. That's the main reason I spent the money to get it to add to my arm. I find it does make a difference when switching between 200 gm vinyl, and the thinner discs, if I adjust. I haven't bothered much in the past, but the damping trough comes with a little adjuster wand that lets you dial in those minute changes. I haven't installed it yet, but someone (Doug?) mentioned it in another post, and, looking on the SME site confirmed that it provides that function. I'll let you know how easily it works once I install it. It just arrived yesterday.
The Thorens Q-up is an automatic lifting device for convenience, it lifts at the end of the record. I used to have one on my old Thorens table. I actually gave it away when I sold that table, figuring there'd be something more modern and stylish by now to go with my Oracle. Hated the Stylift, and that was all I could find, so I bought a Q-up at hugely inflated prices on Ebay. The Q-up fits between the arm and the platter. Then I bought the Audio Technica Safety Raiser on Ebay too, but I'll use that on my Lenco project table as the Thorens fits so well on the Oracle. I love not having to jump up, or even listen to the stylus at the end of the record riding in the lead out spiral.

Thanks agin,

Dave