Teeter-totters are fun!
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?
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?
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- 112 posts total
When you set up and align the cartridge, there should be no anti-skate. There is no need for it since the outward force should be just enough to offset the inward pull. According to cartridge design and engineering experts (I'm not one), most arms are set up with much to much anti-skate. It's obvious when a cartridge stylus is examined through a microscope. One side, the one that rides against the out edge of the groove, is more worn than the inside edge, the surface of the stylus closest to the record label. of the stylus. The longer the arm, the lower the anti-skate force. I have been using only 12" arms for a long time and exert almost not anti-skate force. My cartridges seem to wear evenly. |
MC, do you read what you write? "OMG sorry but it has nothing to do with the angle of the cantilever. The
skating force that pulls the arm towards the center is a result of not
being tangential. It has nothing to do with the offset angle of the head
shell, or the cartridge, or the cantilever, or the stylus, or any of
that." It is the cantilever that must be tangent to the groove, but even then, in a conventional pivoted tonearm which has headshell offset, you won't have zero skating force even at the two null points. First you disagree with me, and then you repeat pretty much what I said, using different words. The magnitude of the skating force has a great deal (not "nothing") to do with headshell offset angle and the cantilever. But headshell offset angle is the dominant cause of the skating force only at the two null points, where the cantilever IS momentarily tangent to the groove, but there is still a side force owing to the fact that the pivot point is offset. At all other points on the surface of the LP, the cantilever/stylus is not tangent to the groove, and this plays an additive role in determining the magnitude of the force, in the vector algebra sense. Everything to you is simple, except sometimes you are wrong in your simple explanations, so maybe not so simple on those occasions. On this occasion, you and I are not really at odds, but you cannot see it. Or, to paraphrase something that Einstein actually did say, a hypothesis to explain a phenomenon should be simple as possible, but not simpler. |
Before we all start getting into a major urinary tract exercise, why not read the results of studies and observations from actual cartridge manufacturers. As a start, I suggest reading Peter Ledermann's comments: https://www.sound-smith.com/faq/how-do-i-adjust-anti-skating-my-cartridge |
- 112 posts total