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Setting Antiskate - visually

I just installed a Kleos onto my Nott 294 with stock arm. For setting antiskate, the Lyra instructions say to observe the cartridge and cantilever as it settles into the record grove - if the cartridge settles to the right or left, adjust the antiskate so it remains vertical.

Well, this is a really tough thing to observe. But, after raising and lowering the tonearm several times with the lever (not by hand), I could watch the cantilever literally walk to the right or the left across the record - one or two or three grooves at a time, and easily observe the skate effect. Just to the left or right of the space between songs provides a good fixed reference spot on the record. Adjusting the antiskate weight to its max and min setting had a clear observable effect on its behavior.

It seems to me that this "method" is consistent with Lyra�s instructions, but does avoid the skating effects, if any, imposed by the rotation of the record. So, has any one used this �method� and/or have any comments?
poonbean
moonglum
619 posts
 
Poon...something which may help : There is a quite a lengthy discussion on this very subject (and method) here on A'gon :
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1292611797&&&/how-do-you-determine-anti-skate-settings

To be honest, I think an HFN/RR test disc will get you to the same point as the "visual-offset-on-dropping-the-needle" but without the grief and the strained eyes :)

As an aside I've found that azimuth variations had minimal effect on my final antiskate setting (I performed before & after checks with +/- azimuth settings).
Cheers.........M
moemoney's avatar
moemoney
158 posts
 
I saw this on You tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIBtZR941Yw&feature=youtube_gdata_player
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
It seems to me that this "method" is consistent with Lyra’s instructions, but does avoid the skating effects, if any, imposed by the rotation of the record.
Not sure what this means. The method should be performed while the record is rotating. Is that what you did?

Also, what I do to deal with the difficulty of visually perceiving small deflections is as follows:

1)Adjust the anti-skate setting until there is a small but readily perceivable deflection in one direction (as viewed from directly in front of the cartridge, of course), relative to the deflection (if any) when the stylus is not on the record.

2)Adjust the anti-skate setting until there is an equal amount of deflection in the opposite direction.

3)Set the anti-skate setting to the mid-point between the settings that were determined in steps 1 and 2.

4)Check that there is then no perceivable deflection when the stylus is lowered onto the rotating record at points near its beginning, middle, and end.

Regards,
-- Al
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Why do people obsess about adjusting an AUDIO playback system by VISUAL means? Would you fine tune a telescope or expensive camera by listening to it?

Except for roughing in a setting, which takes all of 30 seconds, I make every adjustment on my rig whilst listening to music. Isn't that why I spent all this money, to listen to music?

Of course this wouldn't work if I lacked a good internal reference for what real music actually sounds like. In that case, however, visual tweaking wouldn't help. Listening to live vocalists and instruments and paying attention to how they sound would (and has).
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