Tonearms with no anti-skate adjustment

Seems you might be missing the same part the thread below identifies a similar issue...
.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/grace-tone-arm-anti-skate-set-up-question.356558/

Anti-skate is reqired to counter the effect of the "drag" the stylus/cartridge exerts on the arm while playing a track.
- Things can change if the cartridge, or even stylus-type is changed.

Even which track is selected sometimes has an impact, but with a mono recording this is rarely the case

Other impacts are
- the amount of friction the arm pivot bearing produces
- how good the actual anti-skate device on the arm is designed and operates.

Well designed/built arms tend to have very effective Anti-skate designs and their low friction pivot bearings tend to make them much more sensitive to anti-skate adjustment, in which case it is best to get it right.

I’ve had arms where anti-skate made little to no difference - but my Audomods arm/Cartridge combo is very sensitive and has an excellent anti-skate device that even counters the changes in drag that occur as the cartridge approaches the center of the album.

The easiest method to test ant-skate is to play an album that has been recorded in Mono.
- You should hear a centralized image, which may move left and right as you adjust the anti-skate.

You can also go "high-tech" with test records and a meter to measure output voltage of each channel

Personally - i trust my ears and use the mono-recording method
- if the image is "relatively" central you probably have little to worry about.

Regards - Steve

Full (if late) disclosure, most of what I wrote above is straight from Michael Fremer. One of his several hour plus talks on turntable setup. Forget which one. Anyone wants to really understand the subject could do worse than to watch them all. Unfortunately you really do need to watch them all, at least if you’re new, because while he’s a great talker he does have the somewhat detracting habit of meandering and jumping and looping back and putting a somewhat different perspective on things depending on which video you see. But again, you could do worse than watch them all.

Ferris:

You’re still here?

Its over.

Go home.

Go!

williewonka

Anti-skate is reqired to counter the effect of the "drag" the stylus/cartridge exerts on the arm while playing a track.

That is mistaken. Anti-skate is used to compensate for a force that an offset pickup arm exerts that gives it a tendency to "skate" towards the spindle. That’s why true linear tracking arms don’t include anti-skate adjustment.

Some manufacturers discourage the use of anti-skating force, including some who include antiskate adjustments on their arms. VPI is one such example.

Opinions by audiophiles about the necessity of using anti-skate are divided. Surprise! The best approach is to decide for yourself. My preference is to use anti-skate, but in an amount much less than is typically indicated on a pickup arm.

Peter Lederman of Soundsmilth has looked at a lot more cartridges under a microscope than I have. He has said that no anti-skate, or incorrectly adjusted anti-skate causes visible wear that is uneven on stylii.

Then again, that arm was designed for low compliance cartridges tracking at high tracking forces, so if your conical Denon 103, or 102, is tracking at 2.5-3 grams the cartridge will probably wear out quickly enough to not make this an issue at all, the conical stylus being particularly well suited to being used without compensation.

If you hear a bit of mistraking add a tiny more VTF. (you can do that by slightly lowering the tail end).