how do you determine anti-skate settings?

I recently spoke to a Clearaudio rep about this very topic. I was trying to figure out how to set up anti-skate. His response surprised me. He said that as long as your TT is level (use a bubble leveler to make it so), anti-skate is not only worthless, but can actually harm both stylus and record. So, I asked, if that's true, why even bother to supply your rigs with anti-skate weights and hooks for them? He said, "if we don't, people think the design is incomplete or defective." Basically, he said the stylus will track most true in the grooves without any anti-skate at all. He also told me that on cartridge tracking forces, what's listed is actually a bare minimum, tossed out there to prevent a cacophony of phone calls about damaged styli. He suggested that I nearly double my "suggested" tracking force to get optimal results. Take it for what it's worth....I've ditched AS entirely, and my turntable seems to produce better bass as a result. I've also set the tracking force on my Talismann cartridge for 3.5 grams, well above the recommended 2.2-2.4 grams.

Isanchez, I misspoke. I spoke to a Clearaudio distributor, not a rep. Granted, not an engineer. As far as "he should not be speaking on behalf of a company that designs tonearms with an anti-skate adjustment," I think he addressed that fairly clearly, as I stated. "If we don't have anti-skate available, some will think the design is incomplete or defective." Another words, it's window dressing. I'm not arguing with you....the reason I contacted my dealer (who put me in touch with the distributor), was because at ANY anti-skate setting I used, when the tonearm was lifted with the riser mechanism, it would move back towards the periphery of the record. If you lift the tonearm, and it moves, that's too much anti-skate. And I already had it at the minimum setting. That's when I was told to get rid of it entirely. Perhaps an isolated case? Not what he said- he was very clear that anti-skate is deleterious to both record and stylus wear. Surprised me, just as it surprises you.

Jim, appreciate your input. I use a unipivot Unify tonearm. The anti-skate mechanism is a weight that attaches to a small arm on the back of the tonearm. The nylon thread the weight is attached to is placed through a keyhole support wand that is part of the tonearm base assembly. Unless I'm a total stooge (not out of the question), my Clearaudio Unify tonearm/Champion Limited package has no magnetic anti-skate adjustment on it. Am I missing it somewhere (I do actually read the instruction manuals, LOL)? From the manual- "feed the anti-skate weight through the anti-skate support wand and secure it to the threaded shaft at the top of the tonearm bell." The threaded shaft has grooves in it- anti-skate is adjusted by moving the weight thread closer or farther away from the pivot point. No magnetic adjustment that I can find. I even tried moving the wand to different positions- nearly parallel to the tonearm so that the anti-skate vector would be more linear than radial- so that the force vectors applied to the tonearm by the anti-skate weight would be lessened. It was useless. At any position, weight or wand, the tonearm floated back towards the periphery of the record when lifted with the riser mechanism. That is too much anti-skate. If it can move the entire tonearm assembly on its' pivot, it's gotta be too much.

Physics or no physics, all I know is that I get more bass and a cleaner sound without anti-skate. Like someone else said, trust your ears. Just because anti-skate is there doesn't mean it MUST be used. There's a ground screw on the bottom of the CMB bearing on my TT. It's there on all Clearaudio TT's, I think. Do I use it? No. Do I need it? No. But it's there.....

Not trying to create a stink. Just passing along what, for me, was in a practical sense pretty useful information.