Anti Skating adjustment

Nrenter,

1-. This cdr test is not valid because the skating force is applyed to the grooves, if you hae no grooves you have no information about skating force. Another reason is that for example SME arms always go to the center with this cdr test even if you add all the antiskating force to te arm.

2-. Probably it depends on the cartridge/arm relation BUT imho with all the cartridges i have had the a/s force was really really near to the vtf value. I think when this value is not near the vtf probably the problem is in the arm (age), the azimuth adjustment, etc...

Regards

I talked to Peter today concerning the cartridge and he is willing to look at it again with a new RA#. Don't know how this occurred, but the suspension or dampers seems to be the problem. I don't know enough about the internal construction of this cartridge but it should be very similar to the ZYX cartridges today since Nakatsuka-san built them. I have heard that he does not use any rubber dampers and that age should not be an issue, but I'm not sure. What this has brought up though is the Anti-skating factor. I think we all should check our tonearms with balancing for zero VTF and setting A/S to zero to ensure that there is no residual side movement of the tonearm. I always set the VTF and A/S the same as Jelco/Audioquest recommends for the PT-9. With the VTF and A/S set at say 1.5 grams (minimum tracking force for this cartridge) there is a substantial side movement toward the edge of platter. I still think that the flat surface tracks for antiskating on the Cardas and HiFi News records in the center of the LP is a good starting point, then either a bias track of some old Shure test records, or Peter's recommendation for equal crosstalk of the silent track while playing a mono track between channels is a good method. I do think that A/S should not be the same as VTF and much lower.

Not valid? If you say so.

But, back to the OP, you be better off consulting a tonearm designer and a cartridge manufacturer than an audio forum on anti-skate. You'll get 11 opinions from 10 members.

It seems that too many of you get over excited about Anti-Skate. It is not nearly as important...or even important at all. Simply add a very tiny bit of anti-skate if it makes you feel less nervous. The force that one corrects with anti-skate is constantly changing with distance the cartridge is from the spindle, the angle of the cartridge relative to the groove, the loudness of that particular area of the record, the lightly or heavily scoring of that particular area of the record, and I'm sure other factors as well. There are those that also say that anti-skate mechanisms themselves can adversly affect tonearm performance, and that they should be disabled.

Regarding Yesfan's cartridge...send it back to be rechecked/repaired. Personally, I would only accept perfection.

Dear Pojuojuo,
I recently did some internet research on this subject. Most mathematical calculations of AS show that the force applied needs to be but a fraction of the VTF, in agreement with what Nrenter says. If you found otherwise with your cartridge in your tonearm, other factors may be at play. For one thing, you might want to check that your tonearm mounting board is level and plane parallel to the surface of the platter.

However, in my house, in my system, I do find there is some benefit to applying some low amount of AS. Usually I just set AS to the bare minimum above zero and forget it thereafter.