Antiskating .... The last analog secret

Here's a method for setting antiskate (AS) that's more effective than visual methods for lower compliance carts (and works for any cartridge, subject to the disclaimer at bottom).

1. Play 2-3 sides to warm everything up.

2. Reduce AS to zero.

3. Choose an LP or two containing your most difficult to track passages. Mono is theoretically better than stereo, as Nsgarch mentioned, but it's not essential. It is esential that the trial passages be amongst the toughest-to-track in your vinyl collection.

4. Play these passages and nudge VTF downward until you JUST BARELY hear the cartridge beginning to mistrack (slight fuzziness in the HF's and/or actual bursts of static-like noise, both coinciding with dynamic peaks in the music).

5. If mistracking is:

A) more audible in the R channel, gently increase AS until it's about equal in both channels (or goes away). You won't get it perfectly equal, especially with a stereo LP, but close counts for AS. There's no such thing as "perfect".

B) about equal in both channels, AS is set about right.

C) more audible in the L channel, something other than AS needs adjustment (assuming your AS is truly at "zero").

6. Bump VTF back up slightly until mistracking noises stop, HF's are clear and bass/dynamics sound full again. You're done.

You will be at a much lower AS setting than what is usually considered "normal". This method applies enough AS for clean tracking of your most difficult passages, which is all you need. There's no clear benefit in going higher and there can be a serious detriment (as Thomasheisig's photo demonstrates).

IMPORTANT - DON'T GO NUTS
Relax. Close counts. There is no such thing as "perfect" in antiskating. On real world records the skating force we're trying to counteract is always changing, so no amount of measuring, Wally-Skating, oscilloscoping or any other form of OCD-driven fetishness will provide anything more useful than your ears. Don't waste your time unless you enjoy doing those things for their own sake more than listening to music.

DISCLAIMER - Listeners who do not place low level detail retrieval and reproduction of harmonics near the top of their list of sonic priorities sometimes prefer more AS than this method provides. Increasing AS applies more lateral pressure on the cantilever/suspension interface (again, see Thomasheisig's photo for proof). This dampens cantilever freedom, slows response and muffles HF's and very low level signals. The effects of more AS are VERY similar to what my ears regard as excessive VTF. If your ears don't prioritize low level detail and harmonics, or if your sytem masks them, higher AS levels will produce a purer but less complex sound that you may prefer.

I do not employ anti-skating on any of my tonearms.

YMMV

I haven't used Antiskating on any of the tonearms that I've used for the past 20 years. These include Triplanar VII, Moerch DP-6, VPI JMW-10, AQ PT-6 and Sumiko FT-4. I tried each of these arms with all levels of antiskating and preferred the sound with no antiskating. (VPI didn't have A/S so technically I didn't try it with A/S). In all cases, the A/S adds an annoying brightness and is just not as coherent and musical as the arm sounds without the A/S.

I don't know whether the lack of A/S may have affected my cartridges' tracking ability on loud passages. Perhaps it did, I don't know. But IF it did, that is a fair price to pay for the better sound quality during the 99.9% of the record playing time where tracking ability was not critical.

Dave

Dear friends: Let me share with you some thoughts: if everything is fine without AS the first question that comes to my mind is: need I AS? and then where? when? why?.

I can tell you that I play records with high-velocity/difficult passages with out mis-tracking and if I put some AS on those tracks there is no single improvement.

In theory we need the AS at different range level over the LP and from this theoretical point of view any Test Record could help to AS set-up and of course the Nsgarch and Doug posts, but on the real " life " those questions are still " open ".

Of course that if we want to have a " cool-calm mind " about then we have to play LPs with AS. Like I already poted: in my real " world " I think I don't need it but is up to you and your system one and of course the cartridge it self and I don't try ( yet ) every single cartridge out there in my system.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

It may strike some of you as strange, but when I think of what takes place with (and without) antiskating force applied, and the benefits to playback (or lack of them ;-) my attention is not on the interaction of the stylus and groove, simply because the range of forces we're talking about w/ or w/o AS is minuscule.

It is my assertion that when someone perceives different playback qualities w/ or w/o AS, it's due not to the very slight differences in the stylus-groovewall pressure, but rather the accuracy with which the coils (or MM) are in alignment with the stationery parts of the cartridge: the magnetic pole pieces (MC) or the field coils (MM).

In the case of a MM cartridge, the magnet has a very small force field, and if it is being held slightly off-center by some skating force pushing sideways on the cantilever (see Thomas' picture;-), then its force field will not penetrate the coils equally.

Similarly, moving coil cartridges are designed with a little "English" on the suspension, so that at the optimum VTF, the coil/armature is at a perfect right angle to the (very powerful) magnetic force field created by the pole pieces. In fact if you search the vdH website, you'll find that A.J. himself recommends setting the VTF visually -- applying just enough VTF so that when the stylus is placed on the record, and the cartridge viewed from the front, the cantilever passes "right through the center" of the hole in the front pole piece! According to him, that's how you know the coils are lined up with the magnetic field and will produce the most output.

My point, is that different cartridges, due to their coil/magnet configuration, the strength of the magnets, the layout of the pole pieces, etc., may not all exhibit the same sensitivity to the slight misalignment resulting from a little skating force (or too much antiskating force!) And that it's not really about the stylus in the groove.

Doug also touched on an important point when he mentioned that correct AS will (these days) be much less than equal to the VTF! This is because that (old) standard was based on spherical and elliptical styli which develop much more friction in the groove than modern line contact or micro-ridge styli.

By the way, trying to set AS using a blank record surface is like testing your brakes on a frozen lake! If the stylus can't develop any friction (which it can't on a blank surface) then there will be NO skating force produced. Yes I KNOW, if you set the stylus on a blank record, the tonearm literally FLIES toward the label! But that's not due to skating force. In most cases, it's due to the twisting of the internal tonearm wiring -- something that causes even tangential arms to move across blank records! If you try and set AS using a blank track, you will be applying WAY too much AS!
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