Tonearms with no anti-skate adjustment

Lew,
While I do not deny what you’ve said, remove the other supporting point, zero VTF so that it is balanced and floating freely, then the tonearm becomes analogous to the scale i.e. a stable balanced tonearm will behave in the same way.

Your beliefs are contrary to those who have measured the force at the elevated stylus point and compared with “horizontal” arm measurements for VTF.

Have you performed such measurement to confirm your belief?

moonglum

Your beliefs are contrary to those who have measured the force at the elevated stylus point and compared with “horizontal” arm measurements for VTF.

Have you performed such measurement to confirm your belief?

It isn’t clear what you’re asking here.

I can tell you that - all other things being equal - if you increase the height of a statically balanced pickup arm, you will also increase VTF, however slightly. Similarly, if you decrease the height of a statically balanced pickup arm, you will decrease VTF, however slightly. You can easily measure this with a proper VTF gauge.

I’m really surprised that there is any debate about this. It’s pretty basic geometry and physics, and easily measured.

And yes, I’ve measured it.

When you change the vertical position of a pivot, you are in effect changing the horizontal distance between the stylus/record and pivot point of a fixed length tonearm, which in turn changes the balance. As we reduce the distance between stylus/record and pivot, the measured force at the stylus tip will be reduced.  Any adjustment to the vertical position of the pivot that results in the pivot interface and the stylus/record not being inline will result in a lowered measured force.

This can be easily demonstrated. Hold a 5lb weight 45 degrees away from your body (the weight will be farthest from you body). Do the same at 23 and 67 degrees. Tell me which one feels heavier when the only thing that has change is the distance between you (pivot) and the weight.