Rega RB300 Anti-skating problem


I have a Rega RB300 tonearm and a Grado Master Reference cartridge ,
currently the VTF is 1.6 grams and the anti-skating is set to zero .
When using Cardas records that have blank tracks the tone arm wants to move to the outer edge of the track .
This is with the anti-skating is set to zero ! if I set it to anything above it moves outward even faster .
The only way I can have the cartridge not move on the blank tracks is to set the VTF to at least 2 grams .
Checked tt ( Merrill Heirloom ) level , Checked plater level ,
the only thing I can think of is the anti-skate magnet is not working as intended ( the tonearm was re-wired ) .
Any thoughts or suggestions ?
Thanks

128x128vair68robert

Showing 5 responses by vair68robert

Thanks 
But , I've tried listening at 1.9 grams ,
the best way to put it is with the added weight the the sparkle is lost ,
or should I say the high end is gone , dull sounding .
Shouldn't the cartridge be moving toward the spindle
with zero anti-skating ?
Thank You All
I think that maybe that answer is that for some reason 
the anti-skating is somehow preloaded to 2 grams at the zero setting .
Why else would it move away from the spindle with a VTF of 1.6 grams 
and stay stable at 2 grams .

I thought about the magnet being reversed , when I look at the parts breakdown of the Rega tonearm I don't think it could be , even by mistake .
Thank You All 

Today I checked the level of the TT, the level of the sub-chassie  ,
the springs and counter weight , re-adjusted the cartridge offset , re-aligned the cartridge , played with the weight using the Rega VTF vs. just the counter weight ( settled on 1.65 grams ) .
The arm still moves outward slowly on a blank track ,
but right now the sound is fantastic .

I wanted to contact Rega but they refer you to local distributors/dealers ,
The Sound Organization Rega's U.S. distributor e-mailed me back ,
I will call them tomorrow and let keep everybody updated .


I've been in contact with The Sound Organization , Rega Distributor ,
Tom and I both agree the anti-skating magnet
is not working as designe, but neither of us could hypothosize 
about it having 2 grams of anti-skate at zero setting and then going up from there , so he is going to have the service/support manager 
call me when they finish their inventory count .
I'll update agian after I talk to T S O again ,
meanwhile I thank all of you for your thoughts, suggestions and questions, they really inspired me to re-check , re-measure and re-test everything on the TT and the TA and my system sounds better than ever.

With all my checking , measuring and testing I discovered that my Shure
scale is .15 grams lower in reading than my digital scale or my digital scale is .15 grams higher ! 

I looked at the track list for the Hi Fi News test record ,
I will look at finding a used one on E-bay .






The anti-skate adjustment is a sliding magnet that supposedly 
goes from 0 to 2 , where mine seems to start at 2 and go up .
Thus the problem . 
I believe that bacobits and slaw are refering to the ATF adjustment dial
witch is a spring , turning it past 3 grams disengages the spring 
and VTF is adjusted solely with the balance weight .
How do you guys test your settings ?