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Using Test LP - curious observations

I've been tremendously enjoying my Lyra Delos with the Classic for about 1.5 yrs now, and just recently remembered I had the Hi-Fi News Analogue Test LP and got the urge to test my setup.
Here are some of my observations that came as a surprise to me:
1) Anti-skate (Bands 6,7,8,9 on side one) - the cartridge "passed" the test on Band 6 without any anti-skate, but there was audible buzzing coming from the right channel at higher amplitudes. Applying anti-skate made NO difference whatsoever to the results, whether on setting 1, 2 or 3 (most anti-skate). I prefer the sound without anti-skate so this only seemed to confirm that applying anti-skate arguably does nothing to improve the sound and likely makes it worse. It also seems to shed some light on why Harry doesn't like anti-skate.
2) Azimuth (Band 5 on side two) - My preamp has a mono switch so this seemed pretty straightforward. According to the instructions, there should be minimal (if any) mono output if the cartridge was aligned perfectly. Well, there was certainly some output, which immediately worried me, but what really left me scratching my head was the fact that no adjustment appeared to correct it, or make a significant difference. I use the Soundsmith's Counter Intuitive to fine-adjust VTF and azimuth, and after about 2 hours of a wide range of adjustments in azimuth through the CI, it was virtually impossible to determine the optimal azimuth setting, i.e., the output seemed consistently the same regardless of adjustments.

Please free to comment, share your experiences or explain my curious results. Or are they not curious?
actusreus
siranthony
16 posts
 
Tony

What you have said makes perfect sense to me and my expeience. Really I don't see how you get around not having antiskate unless you drop to a very low VTF. Around 1g vtf probably needs very little antiskate.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Tonywinsc, This is not my field so I will put my question in laymans vocabulary. The record grooves get 'smaller' towards the spindle while the platter has the same speed
(33 or 45). So the stylus travels shorter distance towards
the end of the record and the longer distance at the outside radius of the record. This imply different speed for the stylus and contradicts çonstant anti-skate force assumption. Or so I thought.

Regards,

siranthony
16 posts
 
Nandric,
The spirals get smaller but the speed is the same everywhere on the platter. The only thing that should make a difference is the angle of the stylus as it crosses the record surface. Although I am no expert either, I am a building engineer.
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
The record is spinning at a constant speed but the linear velocity at the inner grooves is about 50% slower than the outer grooves.

Velocity is defined as the change in distance divided by the change in time. The stylus covers a much smaller distance (remember the record is making one rotation every 1.8 seconds) in one revolution at the end of the record as compared to the beginning of the record.
tonywinsc
583 posts
 
Remember, the skating force is generated by the torque between the stylus and pivot in the horizontal direction acting on the tonearm. This torque comes from the friction between the stylus and the vinyl. It is sliding friction and as far as I know, the magnitude of this sliding friction does not change with respect to groove speed- at least in the range of the beginning to end of the record. It's not like the needle is being pulled through water where viscous drag would be speed dependent. It is more like a skidding car. The skidding friction is constant as the car decelerates and until the car comes to a stop.
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