Ancient AR Turntable with NO anti skate

Glad I was helpful, Norman.

As a point of information, I’ve found that the procedure I described usually results in an anti-skating force corresponding to about 50% to 60% of VTF.

Best regards,
-- Al

I have never heard a worsening of sound by applying anti-skate and it seems to improve tracking and chanel balance as the arm gets closer to the spindle. FWIW, the AR deck (which was my first ever deck) did have antiskate - it was in the original instructions to adjust the signal wires as they came out of the arm base so as to apply a lateral force as the user required

Norman, With all due respect to the venerable AR turntable, could it be that bearing friction is causing some AS force?  (I owned one myself, of course, back in the 70s when I first got interested in "hi-fi".)  My Triplanar sounds obviously distorted in the R channel when I cut AS to zero.  On the other hand, no less an authority than Doug Deacon used to recommend removing the entire AS device from the Triplanar and going without it.  (Although I seem to recall that he did also talk about applying some minimal AS by using small rubber grommets in lieu of the Triplanar AS weight.) Why two different end-users of the same tonearm would come to different conclusions, I do not know. I do set my AS at minimum on all my tonearms; then I listen for L vs R distortions.  I also check the cantilever after the first 50 hours to see whether it is biasing to one side, in which case I add or subtract a tad of AS, as appropriate.  The net result is probably not far from where Almarg ends up, or if anything I use even less AS.

lewm,

Your suggestion about the arm bearing friction is probably whats happening with regard to the AR.  That would make more sense than anything given the age. The bearing could quite possibly be providing exactly and unintentionaly whats needed by means of wear.

Norman

What the OP is describing has to do with setting up the tonearm. The AR XA/XB original tonearm is designed to float towards the spindle. The only adjustment you have is the counterweight on the back of the tonearm. Once you swap the original tonearm for a Jelco, Rega, Grace, etc, you will be able to set the anti-skate. I'm not sure if a modern tonearm will give you VTF adjustments.