anti-skate test/adjustment

hairofthedawg · « **on:** 21 Jan 2003, 04:46 pm »

I am getting closer to trying vinyl again. A whole bunch of albums I purchased on my last trip to the states arrived today and the 50 Hz pulley for the turntable shipped a few days ago. I have already done all of the cartridge/tonearm adjustments except for the anti skate. The manual is not really clear on it. It is a Borghese tonearm and has a counterweight that is not mounted in the center. Right now I have it so the main mass of the counterweight is centered below the hole via which it slides onto the tonearm. The manual says to rotate it to the left or right to adjust the antiskate, but I do not know a good way to know if I have it right. I was hoping to use a hifi test record, but both copies I ordered showed up after a long move warped so that is no help. I will search the web but am also interested in hearing ideas from the forum on how to approach this.
http://www.bluenote.it/newsite/tonearms/borghese.htm

a photo of the tonearm if my description is confusing..

cheers,

Dick

nathanm · « **Reply #1 on:** 25 Jan 2003, 02:18 am »

Well you basically need an ungrooved plateau on which to set the needle and then tweak the anti-skate until the tonearm doesn't pull to one side or the other. Maybe you could take that record un-warping method shown in the Links section here to the extreme and just melt the grooves off an old album? Heh!

Very gorgeous tonearm by the way!

hairofthedawg · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 Jan 2003, 07:40 am »

It is pretty...too bad mine is marred a bit from using channel locks to try to take it out. I have thought of that, mainly using the two copies of Hifi News test record I ordered that both arrived warped. Would that work in the blank space at the end of an album? Or does it need to be in an area that is designed to produce music? I have an idea of how to do it now, thanks..

cheers,

Dick

Psychicanimal · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 Jan 2003, 02:20 pm »

With gear like the one you have a test record is a must have. I use the Hi Fi News Record Review test record and it's very useful. I plan to also get the Cardas later in the future...

nathanm · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 Jan 2003, 04:44 pm »

My test record has two blank plateau rings (the Cardas\Stan Ricker one), one in the middle and one about a half inch towards the inside. I usually adjust it in the middle. I think it would be hard to do it on the blank area at the end. The stylus would land in the tie-off groove anyway. It seems to change depending on where you are on the disc. Leveling the table is obviously a major factor as well. I usually place my bubble level along the path where the stylus passes and make sure that area is level. I seem to get slightly different readings on various other points on the table.

If I'm not mistaken the anti-skate value is supposed to be the same as the tracking force, so that might be a shortcut. Not like there are precision markings on there though. Well, at least my Rega arm doesn't. It goes from 0-2.