Is my anti-skating too strong.


I’m trying to adjust the alignment of the Ortofon Black Quintet cartridge on my Music Hall mmf 9.3 turntable.  When I put the stylus down on the alignment protractor, the tone arm pulls to the outer edge of the turntable.   Should I disable anti skating when doing alignment or is it set too strong?  Obviously haven’t done this too often.
Also, when listening to the anti skating track on The Ultimate Analogue Test LP, there is noticeable distortion at the end of the track which indicates too much or too little anti skating.  Any guidance here?
udog
 Should I disable anti skating when doing alignment... ?


sure, you have to
Zero anti-skate for alignment purposes.

Whenever you hear distortion, test track or otherwise, always remember the Left channel is on the Left (inside) side groove wall, and the Right channel is on the Right (outside) groove wall. 

Anti-skate pulls the arm to the outside. So too much anti-skate will pull the arm out too much, leaving too little tracking force on the inside, and so the left channel will distort. In the reverse, too little anti-skate gives too much force on the inside, and so the outside Right channel will distort.

Skating forces are generated by the angle of the cartridge being dragged through the groove. Therefore, the higher the volume, the bigger the groove amplitude, the greater the drag and therefore the greater the anti-skate needed to counter it. Notice then this changes constantly depending on the music. So if you use a test LP and set anti-skate high enough to track really high amplitude test tracks, do not be surprised if it is too much anti-skate for a lot of your music. You may or may not notice a problem. Usually people only notice problems at the extremes. Just something to keep in mind.

All of this stuff is childishly simple once you learn how to think it through. Where it gets hard is when a million audiophiles start telling you all kinds of stories and getting you trying things without ever explaining so you understand why. Once you understand why the questions evaporate, you know the answers without even asking.
One more thing to keep in mind is that in some situations, ZERO anti-skate sounds better.