Is my anti-skating too strong.

There is a very interesting method for setting anti-skating force on the website of Vacuum State Electronics. It was written by the late Allen Wright, a highly talented electronics designer and expert on all things analogue:

http://www.vacuumstate.com/fileupload/GuruSetUp.pdf
(for the advice on anti-skating, see page 2 of the document that opens)

Allen recommends using the music grooves of a normal record, not a blank disc. And he recommends identifying the correct anti-skating force by ear. His method is, I think, well worth following.
The central idea put forward by Allen is that adjusting for optimal anti-skating force involves proceeding by small increments - which at first may produce no audible effect (his advice is to concentrate your attention on the right channel, listening particularly for maximum microdynamics).
As one approaches the range of correct settings, there will suddenly be a very noticeable improvement in the right channel (in other words, anti-skating setting follows a very shallow curve and then suddenly switches to a very steep curve - see Allen’s representation of this in ‘Pix 3' on the webpage).
So, I wonder whether anyone has any comments on this, based on their experience.
There is a further interesting point that Allen makes: once you reach - by small increments - the point where the right channel is performing as well as the left channel, you can then go on and apply further small increments, and the effect will be to produce further improvement in both channels. If you then proceed beyond this point - with one increment too much - there will be a sudden audible worsening - a collapse of the microdynamics - in both channels. In other words, once you exceed the optimal anti-skating force, there is a sudden, precipitate fall-off in performance.
Does anybody’s experience of setting anti-skating force confirm Allen’s account?
Peter

@pgtaylor 
Yes - I triangulate the three methods.

Step 1 - I use Soundsmith's technique of setting by dropping the stylus between the inner grooves in the run off and doing an initial set.
Step 2 - I then use the Allen Wright method, running up from low to high antiskate. There is a sweet spot where the sound is most natural.
Step 3 - I check the cantilever to make sure it is straight. You can also use an eccentric record to check if the cantilever shifts more to one side than the other.

Allen Wrights methodology is much easier to perform if the VTA is dialled in accurately, because that with the correct antiskate gives you maximum ease and naturalness of sound, the most harmonically complete.

Using rules like x% of tracking force is wrong because you dont know the compliance in the horizontal plain, it can be quite different to the vertical compliance specified.

Clearthinker, will an airplane fly without wings? No, I do not have to hear one. All I have to do is look at it. Every tonearm must deal with the laws of physics even if you do not understand them. Bow Wow. (dog barking). I think you might want to consider changing your user name. I'll change mine to "dogmatic" 

@justmetoo, friction is much lower in the record groove than it is on a blank record. This is counter intuitive but lets see if I can explain it so it makes sense. The major determinant of friction in a record groove is VTF. Next is the surface area contact. The greater the surface contact the lower the friction. What will have greater friction, the point of a knife or a marble. 
In the groove the stylus has two contact points and distributes the VTF between the two. On the surface of a blank disc there is only one contact point and the full VTF bears on it, the point of a knife. At the same VTF line contact styli will have less friction than elliptical styli. This is why line contact styli can get away with higher VTFs without increasing record wear. Yes, modulation plays a role but minor in comparison to contact pressure. In the groove the contact pressure is 1/2 that on a blank disc.

Dear Mijo, The friction force is independent of surface area.  The formula is f = uN, where f is the friction force, u (Greek letter "mu") is the coefficient of friction between the two bodies in contact and varies according to the materials of which they are made, and N is the "normal force", which is the force by which the two bodies are pushed against each other, in this case gravity.  However, I do agree with you that a groove-less LP does not mimic the actual skating force generated when one plays a record.
MC, In your efforts to be flippant, to pretend everything in the world is simple and that you uniquely understand the simplicity, and to belittle others, you are truly annoying even me, who doesn't give a rat's patootie.  I could refute your refutations of stuff I wrote, but I won't bother.  Suffice to say, it is not that you are wrong but that you are always half right, yet you claim to be completely right. 

mijostyn"friction is much lower in the record groove than it is on a blank record. This is counter intuitive but lets see if I can explain it so it makes sense. The major determinant of friction in a record groove is VTF. Next is the surface area contact."

This is not at all accurate, correct, or true you have a profound, distinct, extreme lack of knowledge and understanding of very basic, elementary, introductory physics.