[Zero One]

After lots of mods to my current TT and Pre amp things are peachy except for one thing, Anti Skating.  It just doesn't work across the LP evenly and with everything else working so well the difference in sound is obvious.

So does anyone have a better anti-skate for DIY that actually works, I have toyed with a few ideas but not sure what to do, so other peoples experiences might help a lot.

Thanks in advance
Zero One.

[lcrim]

Anti skate is purely a function of the tonearm.  What tonearm do you use?

[gooberdude]

I was quite anti-skate for awhile too.     the remedy I'm using is specific to 'tables with the dangling fish weght A-S & the support pole is mounted to the tonearm base.   

i removed it and attached it to the deck about 1 cm away from its orig location towards the platter with some Silicone RTV, room temp drying gasket material.

the change was/is radical.   I have it set to the 1st ring (innermost) on the tonearm, and the vibes from
it don't bother the music anymore.

the tricky part was getting the stock dimensions correct for the pole, but in the end i tuned it by ear.

[Wayner]

I use the fishing line and weight technique on my Empire 598 and it works very well. I was talking to Frank Van Alstine about this and he recommended a blank disc to use for checking the anti-skating, so I had a local glass/plastics company make me one. The blank was lazered out of 1/8" acrylic with an O.D. of 11.75" (11 3/4") and the pivot hole was .286" in diameter. With this disc, you can dial the anti-skating right in and you can hear it when it is set properly. I know there are a few of you that have said this doesn't work, but I will have to say if you don't think so, give me a great technical reason why not, and it doesn't matter anyway because it does work.

If your table has a dial-in anti-skating you can actually watch the tonearm swing one way or another as you change the force with the dial. I've also noticed that the dial may not be real acurate.

I have set my Empire, VPI and HK-T25 using this tool and I couldn't be more pleased. If some of you want one, get one made. I also used this disc on my 2 AR-xa's (they have no anti-skating adjustment) and the arm was stationary at any point I set the stylus down at. I thought that was amazing.

W

[Wayner]

No. You must apply a force that will make the arm go outwards with a slight bit of force. That sounds funny but the natural tendency of any arm is to spin in towards the spindle. The reason for this is the cartridge has an offset angle the drives it inward. Unfortunately, that favors the inner groove modulations that screw up imaging (stereo balance) and distortion (because the stylus doesn't ride the groove in a uniform manner). A turntable is a true mechanical analog device and until you understand all of the physics that the platter/tonearm/stylus/record grooves are going though, you will not be able to set your TT up properly.

Keep reading The Vinyl Circle.

W