Anti-Skate Weight …. Better sound without it?

Bill

Sorry, my stubbornness is not meant in the way you are taking it. I have no delusions, I have great respect for you, lewm, and many others here, I make a fair amount of errors as you know ... but

I strongly encourage others to take control, not be controlled, or 'out of control', be able to do this for themselves, it's neither expensive or hard once you decide to try. 

Fact: Level; Overhang; 2 Null Points; VTA; Azimuth; Tracking Force; Anti-Skate: that's it, the seemingly scary list is not that long!

I came up with a short list of tools, methods, and easily heard L/C/R imaging content anyone can acquire. Tools, Measurements, Ears.

Fact: Inward Skate is real, directly related to tracking force, and AS, the last thing, must happen somehow. Pure Physics

OP's Tonearm incorporates control of and instructions for AS, but only for the cartridge they supply. OP changed his cartridge. The manual does not help.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0710/4649/6578/files/mmf-9.3finalmanual.pdf?v=1677776693

Fact: Evidence reveals MOST are not getting it right! I've read it, and personally repeatedly confirmed it with VAS, highly regarded re-tippers. That is terrible, we have to admit, the industry has not developed consistently accurate methods.

Fact: Thus OEM Dials and Scales are proven to be NOT accurate; alternate tools and methods are readily available and inexpensive.

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IF, after all else is 'right', very little AS is needed, or even none, that means that AS is already occurring from bearing friction, wire 'pushback', a combo of forces like lewm describes, and you are saying is very often the case.

 the blank side LP method will show only a speck or nothing is needed, AND, use your ears: when listening to the 3 guitarists, very slight adjustments will alter the L/C/R imaging, no drums, horns, voices, no golden ears required, just 3 guitars

especially in the case of light tracking, in this case OP has chosen the lightest of the range given for his wonderful AT160ML cartridge of 1.0g, and as lewm pointed out, we don't know how much AS his dangling weight was giving.

The manual is specifically written for a Goldring Eroica LX which they tell you to use 1.75g tracking force (between numbers 17 and 18), and set the AS weight line in notch #2 (presumably notch 2 is -1.75g AS?). They do not tell you what the other notches represent. (SME tells you each notch is 0.25g I think I remember).

The blank side LP method and experimentation with various notches can get you close, and final refinement by ear

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OP can ASSUME everything else is ok, I would rather he KNOW it.

lewm

'Pet Peeve' about Dust Covers I accept, obsession seems unfair. 

Like you, I remove my dust cover during play, advise others to remove them, my peeve is that the majority of the time these fanciful and expensive creations with high precision parts are off, and leaving them out to airborne contaminants is unwise, selling them without a dust cover seems irresponsible to me.

Bearings wear, that takes a long time, but they are effected by airborne contaminants to large or small accumulating degree, and evidence of lack of need for AS reveals both.

devinplombier

thank god for people like you, my imagined beneficiary!

 let us know how it goes!

let me know if you find alternate tools, other methods, any way I was unclear, I tried to be concise, keep it simple, I can always edit it.

E, you do realize that most styli are mounted with at least some zenith error. Dave Slagle says the industry standard is +/-5 degrees. Even a 1or 2 degree error can completely destroy alignment accuracy, no matter the instrument used to achieve alignment. Furthermore few of us have the equipment and judgement necessary to account for zenith error. So I would guess that the majority of us are under the false impression that our cartridges are aligned properly. So I’d say do the best you can but be aware of the problem. As regards azimuth, I have almost come to the conclusion that the capacity to adjust azimuth may be dangerous if the goal is seating the stylus squarely in the groove. (If you’re looking for minimal crosstalk electronically that’s even more fraught, since the end result may be that the stylus sits at an angle in the groove, which results in aberrant stylus wear.) And finally as regards AS, all the tonearms I know about apply AS in a manner that is oblivious to the ever changing angle and magnitude of the skating force. So AS is like the stopped clock that is nevertheless is correct only for two moments in a 24 hour day. So the best one can hope for is a value that reduces the distortion due to skating, if audible, most of the time. There is no such thing as an exact correct value so why bother with fancy gear to set AS which shouldn’t be any better than by ear. In that connection, why would a string and weight AS device be inferior to one that uses magnets?

lewm,

I've asked you twice whether you fixed your 7082 arm's counterweight sag, no answer?

A string and weight has notches, limited to the choices of it's graduated steps, a magnet is infinitely adjustable, which I like better. I do have trouble trusting that the magnetic force won't change, so I re-check by habit.

we are making a strong case for streaming, you have gone to the next level now.