I believe that there
are skating forces in pivoted arms. Therefore I also believe that
some anti-skating force should be applied. There are so many arms out there that have it. It is not a myth, the key is in the execution of that anti-skating force.
There have been many schools of thought on this throughout my life in audio. Elliptical and Conical styli are supposed to need different compensation. Probably true due to the different contact patches. That also means line contact are yet a third set of anti-skating parameters that are needed to be adjusted for. When I sold high end audio gear, I call it "the dark days of the birth of high end", there were compensations for elliptical/Conical/Wet groove/Dry groove. Yes sometimes four different scales. So as Karma says above/below, there are many factors that affect skating.
IMHO some anti-skating is appropriate for pivoted arms.
Been reading some interesting posts around the net and it feels like no anti-skating is preferred. What are the pros and cons? Which way have you gone and why? I am leaning towards no anti-skating, but I am really undecided yet.
Peter
Peter,
I can't imagine
that cantilever/suspension damage was caused by anti-skate. Knowing what caused this cantilever to be deformed is hard to determine.
The forces applied for anti-skating
shouldn't result in an offset cantilever like that; not even if over compensated. I'm just saying I'm a skeptic of anti-skate being the culprit in this case.
I heard too they say with linear tracking tone arms, AS is not needed. Well, strictly speaking, one needs to set the linear arm with a blank groove LP so that the stylus in the arm does not skid towards or away from the spindle area. That is done by adjusting the level of the 2 front feet and 2 back feet of the TT, and the screwable feet of the VPI is perfect for this. To me, that's is the anti-skating setting. If I were to use a pivoted tone arm, I would still use the blank groove record and adjust the anti-skating knob or weight so that a blank cut on an LP would neither slide forward or backward, which is what they mean by 'dead-lock' setting. To me, anti skate in a linear or pivot arm is just that, a dead-lock position, and I believe it prevents a long term 'skewing' or slight curving of the cantilever.
jadis,
Good advice and thanks for the information. One of my arms is a linear tracker (old Souther Tri-Quartz, I'm poor and retired) and I have observed some skating in a blank groove. I
did then adjust my VIP feet for zero movement.
I thought I had my table, platter and the arm level but the skating proved the levels I had used (one
on the Souther which I now don't trust) were inaccurate. Really good suggestion there!
HI All,
There is really no question about it. Anti-skating is bad. Why? Because it is a complete result of the geometrical errors built into every pivoted tone arm. Without those errors, no antiskating is needed because no skating force is created.
Further, skating force is not constant. It is created as a result of the head offset angle AND groove friction which is a function of groove modulation. Since groove modulation is constantly changing, often very quickly, so is skating force. There is no single anti-skating force value that is valid for more than a very short period of time. The best you can do is come to an average value which is rarely correct. I am certain that the quickly changing skating force causes a type of modulation for which we have no name (maybe "Skating Modulation"?) that is related to the horizontal mass of the tone arm. This is bad.
The best solution to this insolvable problem is to eliminate skating force altogether. This can only be done with a linear tracking arm which have none of the geometrical errors that cause skating force. An air bearing arm is the best solution within the linear tracking family.
So, dump your pivoted arm. Problem solved.
Sparky
Sparky, I don't follow your logic. You admit to the existence of skating forces but don't want to adjust for it
at all? I whole heartedly agree that there are a number of factors involved with skating forces at any moment, I don't believe in making no adjustments for it at all. It is kind of "Ok, my car is skidding and there are a lot of factors, I won't make adjustments and skid off the road." I'd rather make some adjustment and try not to end up in a ditch. I think minimizing skating forces for the factors that can be adjusted for makes sense. Groove modulation is not one of those. Good anti-skating force scenarios do adjust as the arm travels across the LP because the skating force changes with the position of the arm on the LP.
All my tonearms are pivoted and I don't use anti skating unless I come across passages when one channel disappears or when one channel sounds louder. Then I start dialing in anti skate a little at a time and stop once I have the desired balance. In most cases, my anti skate is about half the tracking force.
I change absolute phase, if needed, when I play an album, but I can't imaging having to change anti-skate for each album, or each cut on an album. VTA is also something I can't fathom changing for every LP I play. Just my slant on life.