Took a crack at "properly" setting anti-skate...

[twiiii]

As some have said stylus profile makes for different bias settings. I was so fed up with Ortofon elliptical cartridges in the late 60's and 70's I was about to pull my hair, when the B&O 4002 with tangential tracking came along. Oh what a difference, but I didn't like the spectral balance of B&O MMC cartridges. But I then discovered the Rabco tone arm. It made my Ortofon SL 15 and Sl 20's almost ideal. And when the Stanton 981 Hzl came along I was in hog heaven for a time. No tracking issues at all. But I didn't like the sound quality, to dry , to forward. V-15's had issues, too. Well I finally discovered Dynavector a Few years ago. The sound of the Ortofons with the tracking of the V-15's. And,, I don't have to deal with anti skating. I would love to try a big VPI with a Clear Audio TT tone arm , That would be an experience . Is a shame the B&O 4000 and 8000 don't hold up that well and B&O doesn't support them anymore. Though they weren't my cup of tea they made a lot of people very happy at a time when LP's needed advanced technology to be all they could be and a B&O was a big step in the right direction.

 

[cgutz]

I use a mono recording and adjust until volume centered left to right speaker. I figure this factors in groove dynamics.

Does anyone else do this?

 

[chaz]

Joan Armatrading's How Cuel has a blank groove for the entire second side.
https://www.discogs.com/Joan-Armatrading-How-Cruel/master/74739
If you can't find a test record and want a blank disc there is lots of blank space on that album.

 

[Oasis8]

I use a mono recording and adjust until volume centered left to right speaker. I figure this factotmrs in groove dynamics.

Does anyone else do this?

I do it this way also, but I can use stereo LPs that I am very familiar with, and as long as there is no weird room interactions unbalancing the sound....it works well for me.

I dislike the idea of using a blank disk, but each to there own.

 

[lini]

Wayner: Mind you, I haven't questioned that the blank disc method works for you - I've just criticised that statement of yours I've qouted, because I think it could mislead especially beginners into assuming that there would be no skating with a completely straight radial tracking arm because of the absence of an offset angle, which would be a false conclusion.


Nat: I'd concur that it's surely better than nothing. Whether I'd trust the blank disc method more than the antiskating scale would depend on the manufacturer, though. Dual for example invested quite a bit of work to deliver a proper antiskating function - including a decent scale calibration. They even invented their Skate-o-meter for that purpose. So on a Dual in good operating condition I'd tend to trust the scale more than the blank disc method, unless the particular cart/needle would have a rather unusual tip.

And regarding the quantification of "very tip of tip on blank disc" vs. "flanks of tip in groove", that's actually pretty easy to see. Let me have a look, whether I've still got my modest illustration pic... *looking* Found it:


As you can see, it's based on a simple vector split: The two red vectors would be half of the tracking force each, split up into the two normal force vectors (green) and the two perpendicular (to the green vectors) blue vectors, each of which would hence add up to the green vector on the other side - so all in all that boils down to the normal force being 2^0.5 times the tracking force (minus a bit due to vertical skating).


Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Lapslah]

I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE NO MATH!

Seriously though, I've tried the blank disk and simply matching the scale to tracking force but found them to wildly disagree, with both resulting in imbalances and a clearly visible deflection of the cantilever in the groove. Because I really don't like the look of what that deflection is doing to the suspension of what, for me, is an expensive cartridge, my current preferred method is to eyeball the cantilever from the front while it's in the groove and adjust AS until it's straight. I found the deflection to be much easier to see than I expected, and therefore easy to adjust. I find the resulting sonic signature to be good, and I feel better about not torquing my suspension to the side.

 

[Nat]

I was always uncomfortable with the skewing of the cantilever when I used the standard antiskating setting. In it's own way, its an argument for low compliance cartridges, since they are less likely to be afflicted by it. Unfortunately, I seem to find myself tending back towards high compliance cartridges, partly because I have a bunch, but also because many of them sound very good. Good in a different way than moving coils, but good anyway.

 

[Lapslah]

my current preferred method is to eyeball the cantilever from the front while it's in the groove and adjust AS until it's straight. I found the deflection to be much easier to see than I expected, and therefore easy to adjust. I find the resulting sonic signature to be good, and I feel better about not torquing my suspension to the side.

Forgot to mention that an added benefit of this method is that when I lower the cue lever, the needle actually drops straight down where I want it. When setting the AS using either of the other two methods I mentioned, the needle would move laterally as much as a centimeter between its cued up position and where it landed on the record.

 

[dbxdx5]

Forgot to mention that an added benefit of this method is that when I lower the cue lever, the needle actually drops straight down where I want it. When setting the AS using either of the other two methods I mentioned, the needle would move laterally as much as a centimeter between its cued up position and where it landed on the record.

Fwiw, this is also the method recommended by cartridge maker Lyra. EDIT: They actually recommend watching for deflection as the stylus hits the groove, which I believe is the distinction @gusten is making.

 

[gusten]

I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE NO MATH!

Seriously though, I've tried the blank disk and simply matching the scale to tracking force but found them to wildly disagree, with both resulting in imbalances and a clearly visible deflection of the cantilever in the groove. Because I really don't like the look of what that deflection is doing to the suspension of what, for me, is an expensive cartridge, my current preferred method is to eyeball the cantilever from the front while it's in the groove and adjust AS until it's straight. I found the deflection to be much easier to see than I expected, and therefore easy to adjust. I find the resulting sonic signature to be good, and I feel better about not torquing my suspension to the side.

We cannot really adjust for skating force this way, only if the cantilever dosn´t move inwards or outwards after the needle hits the groove.