"how can magnets NOT work?"
That's because "nobody knows what magnets are". Right? 
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Reed 2G magnetic antiskate
for the life of me, my REED 2G antiskate seems to defy me. Using the blank disc, no adjustment seems to keep the arm from skating inward....I have tried some other, audible tests of antiskate, and cant detect any change....any advice or thoughts?
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- 42 posts total
The skating force is due to friction between stylus and vinyl groove plus headshell offset w respect to the pivot. That friction force is the product of a coefficient of friction between the two surfaces (a fudge factor, in other words but nevertheless a constant) and the “normal force”, which means the perpendicular vector of VTF in this case. Skating is generated based on the angle between the friction force vector and the pivot, so 12 inch arms may generate less skating force because they have a smaller headshell offset angle. I don’t see where stylus shape makes a difference. What is “not the case”? I offered a couple of different ideas. Were they all incorrect? |
Can’t explain it, but you know It’s not working, some part of it is not right, you need to write Reed about it, and have it fixed, Sometimes the magnetic anti-skate of my Acos Lustre GST-801 model fails, I saw photos once, still hard to understand, every day I am happy mine still works! Even if only a little is needed, anti-skate is vital to proper tracing of both sides of a groove, (and to ride low enough in the groove) otherwise ALL the fine equipment is dealing with a compromised signal, can still sound good, but not great, certainly not as good as it can be which we all surely want, and all it costs is ’get it right’. ......................................... Grooves, when properly or poorly ridden, benefit from advanced stylus shapes. Any given sideways force on a groove wall (and simultaneously the side of a stylus) will be distributed to a greater or lesser area determined by the amount of contact surface, so your line contact will distribute the same force over a MUCH larger area. Great, less wear if correct or off. see the bottom rows in these charts Avoid taking anything as exact, but for general guidance, they agree in concept. This top chart is old, shows 3 varieties of Line Contact, MicroLinear the best on the chart. The bottom chart is from Audio Technica, they are showing their ’Special Line Contact’ as significantly more contact area than their other profiles, the names relate to their brand’s named profiles.
...................................... There is one ’VPI" trick you can try, because your arm has a short length of wire with a mini-din connector. Early VPI arms did not have any anti-skate mechanism. You spin a twist in the short length of wire before you plug it into it’s adapter. The tension of the twist exerts an outward pressure to the arm. I was able to use the back-pressure of my Blackbird 12,5 arm's wire, but I want a reliably consistent adjustable force, not a random result that probably changes as the arm moves thru it's arc. |
No one is claiming that AS is not needed. And no one is claiming that stylus shape makes no difference to reading the groove. But I don’t think stylus shape affects the skating force. The varying angle that the vector of the friction force makes with respect to an imaginary straight line back to the pivot does make a difference to skating force. If magnetic AS is not fail safe, that makes a good case in favor of the good old weight on a string AS. My Reed 2A avoids the string in favor of tiny metal rods, I am not crazy about that apparatus, because the two metal pieces that must rub together as the stylus traverses the LP are a potential source of noise. (Noise I don’t hear but which troubles anyone with audiophilia nervosa.)
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lewm I agree, stylus shape does not cause any effect to create inward skate, and does not cause any anti-skate force by itself. Inward skate on Pivoted Arms is caused by friction, the amount of friction is directly proportional to downward tracking force. Our arms methods/mechanisms create outer force to counter-act naturally occurring inner-skate. IF anti-skate is properly applied, to counteract inward skate, the stylus will 'ideally' float in the center of the groove, ready to react to the groove walls equally on both sides. As you know and have stated, t's never ideal 'set and forget', all kinds of variations occur during play, we can only do the best we can, making final adjustments when listening to familiar content with easy to hear imaging that reveals when it is essentially right. ....................................... OP IMPLIED ...... and others in other anti-skating threads have minimized the importance, some have even dismissed anti-skate as un-neccessary,
jw944ts OP359 posts "Both of my cartridges have line contact styli. I have read they are less sensitive to skating forces." Thus I clarified a few things. Even if just a little is needed, it is VITAL to get it right. |
- 42 posts total