Tonearms with no anti-skate adjustment

Maybe Schick was thinking about the fact that for longer tonearms, the tracking angle error due to non-tangency of the cantilever to the groove is less on average than for a "shorter" tonearm, all other things being equal.  But you still have headshell offset angle, and as we know, any error in setting up a long tonearm is magnified such that the resulting increase in tracking angle error can be worse than that of a "short" (9-inch) tonearm.  (We're all tilting at windmills in my opinion, because it is rare indeed to have any tonearm that is "perfectly" set up.)

Moonglum, In your model using a balance scale, the restorative force is gravity, acting to restore equilibrium once you remove the upgoing force you applied in order to raise the pan on one side.  At the starting point, where the two pans are level with each other in the same plane, gravity exerts an equal force on both pans, because they are equal in weight or mass.  So equilibrium is reached when the pans are level with each other.  Your upgoing force is tantamount to reducing the mass on the side that it is applied.  It is a momentary force opposing gravity. A tonearm is not entirely analogous to a balance scale, because it is supported at TWO points, at the pivot and at the stylus.  The stylus exerts an upward force on the tonearm equal to VTF. When you mess around with the vertical position of the pivot point and change nothing else, there has to be a shift in the fraction of the mass that is supported by the stylus (=VTF), vs that which is counterbalanced by the counter-weight, which can only exert a fixed downward force equal to the effect of gravity upon it.  The change in VTF is usually small, I admit, for the usual very small changes in VTA that one is trying to achieve.

The balance scale model is flawed as a model for a tonearm.

Lew,
While I do not deny what you’ve said, remove the other supporting point, zero VTF so that it is balanced and floating freely, then the tonearm becomes analogous to the scale i.e. a stable balanced tonearm will behave in the same way.

Your beliefs are contrary to those who have measured the force at the elevated stylus point and compared with “horizontal” arm measurements for VTF.

Have you performed such measurement to confirm your belief?

moonglum

Your beliefs are contrary to those who have measured the force at the elevated stylus point and compared with “horizontal” arm measurements for VTF.

Have you performed such measurement to confirm your belief?

It isn’t clear what you’re asking here.

I can tell you that - all other things being equal - if you increase the height of a statically balanced pickup arm, you will also increase VTF, however slightly. Similarly, if you decrease the height of a statically balanced pickup arm, you will decrease VTF, however slightly. You can easily measure this with a proper VTF gauge.

I’m really surprised that there is any debate about this. It’s pretty basic geometry and physics, and easily measured.

And yes, I’ve measured it.

This thread doesn’t need to go on and on and on. If you want a quality tonearm, properly designed by engineers who know what they’re doing, buy one with anti-skate. Simple.