Tri-Planar with no anti-skate?

Right now VTF is set right at the recommended 2.5g.

Paul,

What you heard by reducing AS is what several of us are still enjoying with the Triplanar.

Doug Deacon found out a while back that the performance on the Triplanar/UNIverse combo can be improved substantially by lowering the AS force. Following his lead I have found that this also works very well with my Tri/XV-1s combo. We now use a few silicone rubber o-rings for AS weights on our Triplanars. Hopefully, Doug will see your thread and offer the correct o-ring size.

You then listen for slight mis-tracking, sibilance, etc, and then add another o-ring until it is gone.

I've found this to work with my Basis Vector tonearm as well.

Paul,

Glad to see you're enjoying this discovery. I did this a year or two ago and shared the results here. Several other owners confirmed what you're now hearing.

Depending on the cartridge, the LP and the tracking conditions, the weight of the bare dogleg doesn't always provide enough A/S for clean tracking. I described our solution, the O-rings Dan mentioned, in my 9-16-2006 post on this thread. We play with anywhere from 1 to 6 O-rings on the A/S dogleg. Other cartridge's requirements may vary, but that will give you a starting point.

While you're at it, read that whole thead from the top. Some (not all) of the tips I presented might help you get even more from this extraordinary tonearm. A couple tips won't apply if your TriPlanar is the latest model VII upgraded version, but they'll give you some perspective on Tri Mai's latest developments.

There are other tweaks which enhance performance still further, but you'll have to email me for those. They're a bit racy for a public forum! ;-)

Enjoy!
Doug

Doug, As regards the drastic reduction of the anti-skate weight on the Triplanar, do you recommend it for all cartridges or only those with line contact styli?

I have a Koetsu Urushi, which I would guess has an elliptical stylus. Does anyone know for sure?

Lewm,

I set A/S by ear. That way it's optimized for any stylus and any tonearm. I think you should do the same.

To set A/S by ear you must first set VTF by ear (with A/S temporarily disengaged or set to zero).

Once VTF is optimal, increase A/S in *tiny* increments until you have no R channel mistracking even on very dynamic, difficult-to-track LP's. The amount you'll need will vary with the equipment and even from one record to another, but it will probably be less than indicated by the standard scale on some tonearms.

The TriPlanar has no A/S scale because Herb Papier understood that different cartridges track differently and that different records act differently. This makes any A/S scale arbitrary and essentially useless. Setting by listening is ultimately the best method and it teaches you more about your rig.