Stringreen said : "...I really don't care of the stylus wears funny - although I doubt that it does..."
Accelerated asymmetric wear on stylii due to either excessive or inadequate anti-skate is a documented fact.
Even if this were not true, many have taken their worn cartridges to specialists who've examined them under microscopes and commented to the effect that the styli were asymmetrically worn out. So if you didn't believe that skating exists it doesn't get any more graphic than this? Studies also indicate that increasing VTF accelerates asymmetric wear.
By implication, this means that the media will be similarly worn. With a £250 MM this may not be the end of the world. With expensive MCs I'd personally be concerned. If someone wishes to zero out A/S with their own MCs then that is entirely their choice and they should be allowed to go in peace.
I'm also concerned at the debating position of those who relegate skating force to an almost inconsequential level, insisting that everyone "do the same - or else!"???
True, cartridges vary in their response to this force (a Music Maker 3 is superb at tracking the HFN/RR tracking tests at as little as 1.55g with fairly random settings of A/S, unsurprisingly, since Len Gregory was responsible for both) but that doesn't mean that unilateral wear isn't occurring.
On balance, the average MC is generically less capable. This will not be an issue unless you get A/S wrong, but it won't make them "Test Disc Champions" and neither should it because the objective is to BALANCE the distortion at your "normal" VTF not to overcome it with brute force.
Accelerated asymmetric wear on stylii due to either excessive or inadequate anti-skate is a documented fact.
Even if this were not true, many have taken their worn cartridges to specialists who've examined them under microscopes and commented to the effect that the styli were asymmetrically worn out. So if you didn't believe that skating exists it doesn't get any more graphic than this? Studies also indicate that increasing VTF accelerates asymmetric wear.
By implication, this means that the media will be similarly worn. With a £250 MM this may not be the end of the world. With expensive MCs I'd personally be concerned. If someone wishes to zero out A/S with their own MCs then that is entirely their choice and they should be allowed to go in peace.
I'm also concerned at the debating position of those who relegate skating force to an almost inconsequential level, insisting that everyone "do the same - or else!"???
True, cartridges vary in their response to this force (a Music Maker 3 is superb at tracking the HFN/RR tracking tests at as little as 1.55g with fairly random settings of A/S, unsurprisingly, since Len Gregory was responsible for both) but that doesn't mean that unilateral wear isn't occurring.
On balance, the average MC is generically less capable. This will not be an issue unless you get A/S wrong, but it won't make them "Test Disc Champions" and neither should it because the objective is to BALANCE the distortion at your "normal" VTF not to overcome it with brute force.