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

Whewe....I have been an exponent of not using a/s for years on these and other pages, only to be rebuked many times over.. Vindication at last...others hear what I hear....improvement with no a/s. ..just to admit to setup deficiency on my part....I got an ap on my iPod touch that is called suface level....it actually buzzes when it is perfectly horizontal. When I initially set up my table I used a carpenters level, and now realize that the little bubble may be off because of parallax error, etc. Anyway, with the aid of the buzzer crying out in perfection, and again using the FOZ to check for azimuth, I am rewarded with an even better picture to the musical event.....Vinyl requires great patience....

Hmm, if anti skate is so bad why do tonearm designers include it in their designs ?. I suppose some people don't mind a deflected cantilever and the sonic issues that may result. there could be some arms that can perform w/o anti skate perhaps ? Graham is not one of them, nor is the Clearaudio Universal arm which I have tried with and without anti skate.

Rockitman...A/S is included with tonearms as a selling point....when skating became the new adjustment of perfection, it was hard to sell an arm without it. In truth, A/S is very illusive...there are so many factors that contribute to it that there is just no way to adjust so that it does what intended. Most arms, when set according to directions apply WAY too much a/s . The constant outward deflection of the arm...when not needed...especially with too high a setting, exerts a force that inhibits the stylus and produces a side damping. One wants the stylus to be absolutely free to negotiate its travels.

I am not anal about it. I try to use the minimum possible. I also observe the cantilever when it drops on the record to see if it deflects on impact when it starts it's groove travels. Not a perfect method by any means but works for me with the arms I use....close enough, imo. I also pay close attention to the inner groove right channel and listen for distortion...and apply more skate if needed.

I also observe the cantilever when it drops on the record to see if it deflects on impact when it starts it's groove travels. Not a perfect method by any means but works for me with the arms I use

On impact the stylus suspension will be stretched and the elasticity of the joint will be at its maximum. Therefore this is the worst time to measure anti skate using cantilever flex as a measure.
It would appear far more logical to me to check that the cantilever is centred whilst playing. The caveat here is that many folk adjust anti skate without checking that the horizontal bearings in the tonearm are level - a few microns out can affect antiskate requirement significantly. The other trap using listening or channel balance is the possibility that one might use anti skate to compensate for other system issues.

Personally for anti-skate I am looking for accurate set up of turntable and arm first - ensure that both platter is perfectly level, check that the horizontal arm bearings are perfectly level by balancing the arm to zero and check that there is no float in or out, I check that a small tap creates the same travel distance in both directions ( with the arm balanced to zero ). As a high end dealer many years ago my experience is that many arm boards are not level when the platter is level. Furthermore in many gimbal type arms I have found that when the arm base is level, the horizontal arm bearings are not. This is why the float test is very important and will help to minimise anti skate.

Then after careful set up of the cartridge including alignment, VTA, tracking weight ( its an iterative process ) for anti-skate I check that the cantilever is centred whilst playing in the middle of a record. Using your ears before and after each adjustment is helpful.

I would expect that a unipivot arm ( like the VPI ) will have less issues with anti skate than a gimbal arm because the issue of ensuring the horizontal bearings are perfectly level does not arise, and the bearing friction should be considerably lower if the unipivot has been designed correctly.