This discussion comes and goes on every analog forum. Stringreen has not changed his opinion, which is his right. But I have to agree with cleeds; the skating force does exist for every pivoted tonearm, whether we like it or not. I don't have any idea why some tonearms seem to sound fine with no AS applied and others do not. In some cases (VPI) the routing of the tonearm wires may in and of itself provide some degree of AS force such that lack of a formal mechanism for AS is not missed. At least that is a popular hypothesis. Many cartridge makers and repairers have also remarked that they see styli with irregular wear patterns, where the cartridge was used for a prolonged period of time in a tonearm without AS. The skating force is like global warming; it's there all the time, whether one chooses to compensate for it or not.
Ancient AR Turntable with NO anti skate
A friend had me over to listen to his restored late 60's Acoustic Research turntable. While listening, I noticed that the somewhat awkward looking tonearm had no anti skate. Looking closely at the stylus assembly, it wasn't drifting or pulling toward the center spindle. It seemed to track clean and true through the entire LP. The arm is the original stock AR arm and couldn't be more that 8.5" or 9" in length. I am just curious how AR pulls that off with such a short arm? I have seen several 12" arms (Audio Technica for example) that dispense with anti skate completely but never a smaller one. By the way, the table sounded wonderful and the cartridge was a Denon 103R.
Thanks,
Norman
Thanks,
Norman
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- 54 posts total
- 54 posts total