To antiskate or not antiskate


Well that's the question,  as I'm evaluating the latest addition in my setup.

A dr feickert woodpecker with a clearaudio unify 12 inch tonearm and lyra titan cartridge. 

This is my first encounter with this kind of setup so any advice is welcome ! 

iseland

We went thru the anti-skate wringer in the other thread, I think worth careful reading, I put a list of simple tools and methods there.

First, verify all else is properly mounted, aligned, calibrated, anti-skate is LAST!

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/anti-skate-weight-better-sound-without-it

  1. Anti-Skate (one hand always on the arm lift lever)

 

  1. Use blank side of LP, raise arm, get platter spinning 33 rpm.
  2. Lower arm, it gets pulled into the center, that is natural skating force
  3. add a little anti-skating force, lower arm, a bit more. Check it at various distances from the outer and inner grooves. Find a compromise, if any allow a speck of inner skate, avoid outer skate.
  4. Final, by ear, using the LP, last 2 tracks, 3 guitarists play, imaging reveals their placement, verify you can hear John in the middle and the others left and right.

finishing by ear, with an LP with no sounds except 3 guitarists, and excellent imaging, no golden ears required, anyone can hear when Paco/John/Al are distinctly L/C/R.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_in_San_Francisco

  1. Use CD version to confirm all system connections are good for L/R Balance
  2. AFTER 1 above, Use LP version to refine anti-skate by ear

.................................

I had a 12.5" effective arm, it needed some anti-skate. Every arm is unique, I would take control rather than trust that long arms don't need it.

I prefer lighter tracking cartridges. One of the side benefits is that inward skate is relative to downward force, sooooo, less anti-skate will be needed if/when tracking lightly, and any error, will be LESS forceful 

 

Ok , I'm corrected and I will add the lightest weight to start with and listen again..

@thebrokenrecord +1 for Wally Tools / Wally Skater. I have the complete set as well as microscopy analysis with custom shim. This is the way to go. 

I posted the report in my virtual system.

Check out at the Zenith error in my cart. Published tolerances are +/- 5% which is a lot, but can corrected if you know what it is and have the right tools.   

It wasn't a budget helper at about $450 here in Europe 😳 but in regards to the rest of the gear it's coffee change or there about 😆

  1. Use blank side of LP, raise arm, get platter spinning 33 rpm.
  2. Lower arm, it gets pulled into the center, that is natural skating force
  3. add a little anti-skating force, lower arm, a bit more. Check it at various distances from the outer and inner grooves. Find a compromise, if any allow a speck of inner skate, avoid outer skate.

Sorry, but this does not work very well, if at all. By ear yes, but it helps to know you're in the ballpark to start with.