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Just noticed my tracking force and anti-skate were set wrong. Do I need to replace the stylus?

G

Gazumbo

New Member
I have a AT-LP120XUSB with VM95E. I've just noticed that at some point I've knocked (possibly multiple times) the tracking force and anti-skate settings out of alignment. The TT is under a shelf, and the back end of it is not very visible. I must sometimes catch these bits when I take the lid on and off. I just found the tracking force set to 2.7 (should be 2.0) and the anti-skate 1.0 (should be 2.0).

So, how much time is needed with extra tracking force to cause excess wear on the stylus? I've noticed a few records sounding more sibilant lately, which is what prompted me to check. I think I'm roughly about 50 hours usage on this stylus (rated for 300hrs).
 
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You have an interesting question. I have a VPI Traveler turntable without anti-skating. I use a Shure ML140HE Cartridge with the Dynamic Stabilizer and the tracing force is set to 1.5 grams (1 gram at the stylus). Seems to work well without it. I use the wound wire leads to add a bit of anti-skate.

With such little time on your stylus, set it correctly to 2 grams and add ant-skate observing how the stylus slides in on the beginning of the record. If it hangs a bit before locking into the groove, leave be. You added enough, perhaps a tad bit more than necessary but give it a listen and let us know.
 
Jose Jimenez said:
You have an interesting question. I have a VPI Traveler turntable without anti-skating. I use a Shure ML140HE Cartridge with the Dynamic Stabilizer and the tracing force is set to 1.5 grams (1 gram at the stylus). Seems to work well without it. I use the wound wire leads to add a bit of anti-skate.

With such little time on your stylus, set it correctly to 2 grams and add ant-skate observing how the stylus slides in on the beginning of the record. If it hangs a bit before locking into the groove, leave be. You added enough, perhaps a tad bit more than necessary but give it a listen and let us know.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I'm concerned as to whether the stylus will have become excessively worn as I don't know how long the settings have been like this. After setting it correctly. I listened to a few tracks and they still sounded quite harsh in the treble. It's possibly just the recording itself so i'll need to try a few different ones.
 
I wouldn't worry about the anti-skate. That's a rough approximation anyway. I'm sure it's fine.
I do worry, though, about those 2.7 grams with an elliptical stylus. And not necessarily for the stylus, but rather for the records. If I had to use an elliptical, I would go for the lowest tracking force I could get away with. Of all stylus shapes, ellipticals are the most prone to cause record damage when you exceed the recommended tracking force. But now what's done is done. Just set it back to 1.8-2.0 and call it a day. And perhaps replace it at, say, 200 hours or so, just to be on the safe side.
 
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Good deal. Those styli are still around if needed. Do you have a friend that can loan you an extra cartridge for a few days?
 
I agree to what Vlad Soare mentioned and make certain that the elliptical cartridge is aligned correctly also. If not, you may hear more distortion, especially towards the end of the record.
 
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This might be an opportunity to reevaluate all of your stylus settings, not just AS and vtf. If you could temporarily put your turntable in a position where you could see more of what is going on, it might be helpful in evaluating the issues you are experiencing. Flying blind is never good at times like this.
 
Gazumbo said:
I have a AT-LP120XUSB with VM95E. I've just noticed that at some point I've knocked (possibly multiple times) the tracking force and anti-skate settings out of alignment. The TT is under a shelf, and the back end of it is not very visible. I must sometimes catch these bits when I take the lid on and off. I just found the tracking force set to 2.7 (should be 2.0) and the anti-skate 1.0 (should be 2.0).

So, how much time is needed with extra tracking force to cause excess wear on the stylus? I've noticed a few records sounding more sibilant lately, which is what prompted me to check. I think I'm roughly about 50 hours usage on this stylus (rated for 300hrs).
Click to expand...
It will be fine
Chris
 
As Chris said, do not worry. But if you get too anal for the stylus health, just replace it. That elliptical is cheap.
 
No worries. The AT-VM95E is robust enough that extra 0.5g of tracking force has not harmed anything (the recommended VTF range is 1.8-2.2g) and as for an antiskate, it's always a compromise and IME too little is generally better than too much.

Tracking your records at 2.7g with a .3x.7 elliptical is not too worrisome to me and it's better to have too much than too little tracking force - 0.5g too much is unlikely to hurt anything while 0.5 too little and you'd probably get mistracking which will cause wear. More tracking force does equate to faster wear of the stylus and records but it's not like you go over some treshold and trigger superfastwearmode, so I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

With clean records & stylus and reasonably good alignment I think you've maybe accelerated the loss of high frequency information but that's pretty benign and generally not an issue. Unless you've been playing some record for really excessive amount, you'd be unlikely to notice it anway unless you are both young enough to have still good hearing up to 20kHz and have a pristine reference copy of the same album to compare side to side, in which case you *might* notice the unplayed copy has slightly clearer and louder highs.
 
Yes, a clean stylus! I recall back in the 70's when Ivor with his Linn Army would proclaim that the best stylus cleaner was a matchbook.
 
Gazumbo said:
I have a AT-LP120XUSB with VM95E. I've just noticed that at some point I've knocked (possibly multiple times) the tracking force and anti-skate settings out of alignment. The TT is under a shelf, and the back end of it is not very visible. I must sometimes catch these bits when I take the lid on and off. I just found the tracking force set to 2.7 (should be 2.0) and the anti-skate 1.0 (should be 2.0).

So, how much time is needed with extra tracking force to cause excess wear on the stylus? I've noticed a few records sounding more sibilant lately, which is what prompted me to check. I think I'm roughly about 50 hours usage on this stylus (rated for 300hrs).
Click to expand...
unless the cantilever is bent, you are fine.
 
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