Hi Norman,
Thanks for the additional info.
I've read on several occasions that although it is not uncommon for people to adjust anti-skating using a record
having a blank side, that is not an optimal technique.
That is because a
basic factor in the origin of skating force is friction between groove
wall and stylus, and a blank record of course does not have any groove walls.
Therefore the resulting contact and friction are very different than when the stylus is in the groove of a rotating record.
The procedure I've always found to work well,
at least with cartridges having medium to high compliance (I have no
experience with cartridges having low compliance), and which I’ve found
to generally require little if any subsequent fine tuning by ear, is as
follows:
1)Observe the cartridge from the front while it is in
the groove of a low volume passage of a rotating record, and positioned somewhere in the middle
of the record.
2)Adjust anti-skating until deflection of the
cantilever to one side (left or right) becomes barely perceptible,
relative to its position when the stylus is lifted off of the record.
Note the setting.
3)Adjust anti-skating until deflection of the
cantilever to the other side (left or right) becomes barely perceptible,
relative to its position when the stylus is lifted off of the record.
Note the setting.
4)Set anti-skating to the mid-point between those settings.
5)Verify
that no perceptible left or right deflection of the cantilever occurs
near the beginning and near the end of the record.
Regards,
-- Al