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Graham Phantom Anti-Skate. Is it effective at all?

I've had my Phantom Supreme over a year now, and for the most part it's been a pleasure. Beautiful build & sound; awesome VTA and azimuth adjustments. My main hangup had been the headshell; getting a Koetsu to sit flat on the 10" wand seemed impossible because the correct overhang pushed it all the way to the back, behind the main headshell points of contact. Finally I just used 2 plastic washers as shims to get a nice flat mount.

Now my main concern is the anti-skate. I'm not sure if all Phantoms are this way or if it's an issue with my unit. I can't seem to get an effective amount of anti-skate. My preferred method for adjusting anti-skate is to drop the needle in some dead-wax before the label (NOT into a lead-out groove) and adjust so that the stylus creeps *slowly* inwards. With my Graham, I cannot achieve that...it always moves quickly inwards no matter how far out I set the weight. Even physically pushing down on the weight doesn't seem to have much effect in swinging the arm. To me, this seems like the mechanism is not effective, as if I'm running without any compensation. This is very unlike my experiences with a Fidelity Research FR64fx (weight and fishing line) and Clearaudio Magnify (magnetic) -- both have a very noticeably effective anti-skate mechanism, which I can easily dial-in as described above. In fact I just setup a Magnify...it was great!

On my Graham, the pulley & rope system seems to be correctly in place. But without a 2nd until to examine, I can't determine whether this is normal. Could other owners/users of Graham please comment on their experiences with its anti-skate? The situation is OK for now -- I burn hours on my good cartridges very slowly and sparingly -- but I'd rather not have my nice cartridge seeing asymmetric wear over the long-run.

-- Mike
128x128mulveling
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Hey... I agree with Judy! I too have never done this. No kidding.

Tilting would put uneven pressure on the TT bearing. That would cause eccentric wear, impact speed stability and shorten the useful life of the table.

Realistically, this might not be a serious concern if you have a lightweight platter and/or an inexpensive bearing. My platter weighs nearly 40 lbs. and a replacement bearing would cost me around $1K... so it would be a foolish risk for me. Your Aries platter is lighter but the VPI platter bearing is fairly loose fitting, which would increase the rate of wear from an eccentric load. Tilting an Aries seems penny wise but possibly pound foolish.

VPI makes an optional anti-skate device for their JMW tonearms. If you feel a need for anti-skating, why not just spring for that?
judyazblues
157 posts
 
Pay attention to dougdeacon tzh, then take a physics course.
Thank you
don_c55
1,025 posts
 
Anti skate is not necessary IMO.

It varies with the complexity of the music, off center record hole, and offset alignment type.

It is a moving target that can never be completely compensated for.

Also the stylus vibration is 3 dimensional, and there is not significant asymmetric stylus wear to worry about IMO. Anti skate is the least important part of the arm alignment. Dust control, arm setup, and clean records, results in long stylus life.

Try listening without anti skate. I use no anti skate, and do not have any inner groove distortion on almost 100% of my 2000 records.
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Agree with Don_c55.

The sonic and musical improvements from defeating (and eventually removing) the anti-skate device from my tonearm were considerable. The sound floor was noticeably lowered and micro-dynamics increased... more music with more jump.

IME, asymmetric stylus wear is possible but the actual risk is slight. Many cartridges wear out their suspensions before stylus wear becomes an issue. With such cartridges, the theoretical risk of asymmetric stylus wear becomes irrelevant.

As previously discussed on this forum, anti-skating often becomes a liability for listeners who are keenly aware of the sonic effects of all tonearm adjustments. If you routinely tweak VTF and SRA by ear on an record-by-record basis (because you hear and appreciate the sonic results, not for the sake of tweaking), you may find that anti-skating is unnecessary for clean tracking. You may decide that hearing more lifelike musical reproduction is worth more than the theoretical risk.

YMMV of course. Results will vary with cartridges, tonearms, accuracy of setup and of course one's ears.
tzh21y
1,654 posts
 
Just a little makes a world of difference in tracking, soundstage,everything. No need for anti skate control. I mean the line level and bubble level look almost perfectly level, just slightly off center, not much. Makes a world of difference.
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