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More on VPI Anti-Skate

I just moved to my new Arizona digs from NJ. I plunked down the stereo (sounded awful) and discovered I lost the Vandersteen owners' manual. I just found it on line and was able to position the speakers properly, and it sounds much better. I have been using the anti-skate on my VPI 10.5 on Superscoutmaster with rim drive and all the other upgrades. I noticed, that the anti-skate mechanism was not functioning peculiarly..it seemed to be sluggish..damped in its travel if you will. I remembered it operating silky smoothe. In the meantime I had added some damping oil in the arm. Much to my satisfaction, it added tremendous layering, tightened up voice so that it was between the 2 speakers rather than spread across the 2 speakers, etc. I noticed however, when I removed the anti-skate to drop some WD-40 at the pivot (which returned it to its silky self) that the sound was even better. I reported on these pages that the sound improved WITH the device, but I discovered that it improved the UNDAMPED arm. With damping, the a/s is a bit of a detriment. I took the oil out and repeated the experiment to see if the now properly lubricated a/s device was a help. Indeed it was, however, when I put the damping back into the arm, I preferred the damped arm without the a/s. As with everything, there are variables.
128x128stringreen

Showing 4 responses by mjglo

mjglo
127 posts
 
Did you return to using a twist of the tonearm wire for A/S?
I wonder if your new room had something to do with this.
mjglo
127 posts
 
The Lyra cartridge I have has a specific A/S setup procedure I'm going to play around with this weekend.
mjglo
127 posts
 
A/S procedure from the Lyra Skala instructions:
"Carefully adjust anti-skating force by observing the stylus and cantilever directly (as seen from the front of the cartridge) when the stylus is lowered onto a record groove. Any pulling of the cantilever toward the left or right means setting is wrong. Readjust repeatedly until the antiskating force is right, and repeat at various positions across the LP, again until the antiskating force has been set properly. It is better to do this adjustment visually as described above, rather than relying on the number-scales built into your tonearm or blank-groove test records."
I did this without any antiskate applied and the cantilever bends because the arm is pulled toward the center of the record. By slowly lifting and lowering the cartridge on a non-moving record (repeatedly) with no antiskate applied I can actually "walk" the cartridge across the record toward the center.
With a minimun of antiskate applied using the VPI devise (not the wire twist) the cartridge will lift and lower in exactly the same groove and not bend or walk.
I did not try this with just the wire twist, I did not do any listening tests, I've been using the VPI devise at the minimum setting, I just wanted to make sure it was working.
I think the VPI devise set at minimum applies more antiskate than the wire twist method and probably does so more evenly across the record without wearing out or losing it's tension.
Dampening fluid levels, I think, are a seperate subject.
I posted this for your information and to give you one more tool to drive you nuts, in any other forum we would be locked up or out.

Good luck,
Mike
mjglo
127 posts
 
Stringreen,
I have the loop at the top of the upright arm for the most leverage and least movement. I have the line length set so at the start of the album the outboard arm is at the 8:00 position, at the end of the album it is at the 9:00 position. This is very little movement and very little change of force between start and end of the album, I'm not sure it's even measurable with any tools I have. Side note, I only use one o-ring to support the loop in the line from underneath and no o-rings on the outboard arm.

Mike
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