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Graham Phantom Anti-Skate. Is it effective at all?

I've had my Phantom Supreme over a year now, and for the most part it's been a pleasure. Beautiful build & sound; awesome VTA and azimuth adjustments. My main hangup had been the headshell; getting a Koetsu to sit flat on the 10" wand seemed impossible because the correct overhang pushed it all the way to the back, behind the main headshell points of contact. Finally I just used 2 plastic washers as shims to get a nice flat mount.

Now my main concern is the anti-skate. I'm not sure if all Phantoms are this way or if it's an issue with my unit. I can't seem to get an effective amount of anti-skate. My preferred method for adjusting anti-skate is to drop the needle in some dead-wax before the label (NOT into a lead-out groove) and adjust so that the stylus creeps *slowly* inwards. With my Graham, I cannot achieve that...it always moves quickly inwards no matter how far out I set the weight. Even physically pushing down on the weight doesn't seem to have much effect in swinging the arm. To me, this seems like the mechanism is not effective, as if I'm running without any compensation. This is very unlike my experiences with a Fidelity Research FR64fx (weight and fishing line) and Clearaudio Magnify (magnetic) -- both have a very noticeably effective anti-skate mechanism, which I can easily dial-in as described above. In fact I just setup a Magnify...it was great!

On my Graham, the pulley & rope system seems to be correctly in place. But without a 2nd until to examine, I can't determine whether this is normal. Could other owners/users of Graham please comment on their experiences with its anti-skate? The situation is OK for now -- I burn hours on my good cartridges very slowly and sparingly -- but I'd rather not have my nice cartridge seeing asymmetric wear over the long-run.

-- Mike
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syntax's avatar
syntax
2,193 posts
 
As a high end dealer many years ago my experience is that many arm boards are not level when the platter is level. Furthermore in many gimbal type arms I have found that when the arm base is level, the horizontal arm bearings are not. This is why the float test is very important and will help to minimise anti skate.

the best posting I read in the last 3 years here about AS. I agree and I am amazed, that only Dover detect that a lot of Arm boards are not correct in combination with a level platter. Famous example of our modern time are the ones for Germany, mainly black, surrounded by a few motors and bought from customers who prefer to read hypes rather than to think about what they buy. But there are more out there. I also agree with the Arms, we have Fans who prefer wood tubes for several thousand $$, or plastic, or simply wrong executed tubes...and there is only one out there who used his brain to develop something useful, The Axiom Arm from Acoustical Systems. It has an independent leveling. A nice detail which will never get the respect it deserves :-)
The AS depends also on Arm Geometry (---> Arch Angle for example), when that is weak you can adjust whatever you want...day in ...day out....or those low VTF designs, which ruin the cantilever on their own while playing...some manufacturers offer a re-align service after buy...I miss the time of the good, old 2,5gr VTF units...they were buried because they run too long :-)
john_gordon
116 posts
 
.

Stringreen, and Doug
A/S is included with tonearms as a selling point....when skating became the new adjustment of perfection, it was hard to sell an arm without it. In truth, A/S is very illusive...there are so many factors that contribute to it that there is just no way to adjust so that it does what intended. Most arms, when set according to directions apply WAY too much a/s . The constant outward deflection of the arm...when not needed...especially with too high a setting, exerts a force that inhibits the stylus and produces a side damping. One wants the stylus to be absolutely free to negotiate its travels.

It is not the case that antiskate is some sort of sales thing . As mentioned above there is good reason that for half a century or more probably more than 99.9% of arms had and still have it. Antiskate is provided to compensate for skating forces. You adjust it to equalise distortion on each channel. If you run an arm without it then by definition one channel must have more tracking force than the other. End of story.

Unless, of course, your arm is providing a force by some other means, eg inadvertently through using heavy wire through the bearing, such as Cardas, or twisting the wire deliberately, such as VPI or AR, or being off level, or having stiff bearings.

And, of course, it is cheaper to make an arm without the facility.

With no antiskate there are force acting to pull the arm inwards. If you complain about the effects of the outward force applied using antiskate, but to where does the inward force magically disappear when not using it? None of the anti skate advocates have addressed this, nor why the unequal forces mysteriously don't cause distortion.

There must be compensation with extra downforce (all things being equal), to increase the VTF on the right channel.

All this is not to say that all antiskate methods are perfect. Their physical presence may well affect the sound.

And of course the arms on which they are used may suffer from the above mentioned wiring and other issues, so rendering the mechanism redundant.

John

.

But If it all sounds ok because fair enough.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,468 posts
 
John ...even your last sentence is wrong. I suspect that there is such a thing as skating force....but it is a very slight, illusive and constant changing force. It is impossible to correct for it and most times it is overcompensated. Why do you say that there is distortion on one channel without A/S ?? If the vtf is adjusted properly, the stylus stays in the groove with no mistracking. The bottom line is that MY arm/cartridge sounds better with no A/S, therefore that is the better way. I tried it (a few times) with A/S, but the sound is always better without it.
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
As far as impact, I'm looking for deflection after the record groove is being
traced. You need to look at it before, during and after to see if it's consistent
with how it looked before dropping on the LP. It takes concentration. Even
so, I'm not too concerned about it...little is better than too much.
sarcher30
596 posts
 
...and there is only one out there who used his brain to develop something useful, The Axiom Arm from Acoustical Systems. It has an independent leveling. A nice detail which will never get the respect it deserves :-)

Actually the Schroder LT had that feature before the Axiom came out. It is a very good idea.
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