Anti-skate

Stringreen, I'm sure that you overlooked or took for granted that Ghost_rider knew that the main purpose of anti-skate is to counteract the inward pull on the arm that the record exerts as it gets to the inner grooves. If you look at the inner part of the record, the circles made by the cutter-head become smaller, as compared to the outer grooves. This exerts a bigger force inward on the tonearm and cartridge. In fact, I believe that "Hi-Fi Answers" (Alvin Gold, Jimmy Hughes, David Prackel, Keith Howard where are you?) measured the total harmonic distortion(THD)in the inner grooves as being much greater than the THD in the outer grooves.

Jaybo's comment about the last song being less dynamic as an audio trick is correct, I believe. Dan_ed, what a system you have! I would think that owning a Basis arm allows you to ask Conti(the ultimate Analog perfectionist) about anti-skate. Ghost_rider, what I do about anti-skate, tracking force(VTF), and vertical tracking angle(VTA) is to look up the manufacturers specifications, and also look at what reviews or owners have to say. Then, I use those as a guide, or I keep them in mind while I try to fine tune them by ear. That's why I started this thread-to give a guide to people(in my case, what it would sound like, if you do it by ear). I'm sure Raul could give some advice here, but I'm not sure he could dumb it down for the everyday person(includes me). Ghost_rider, I believe that the standard answer on anti-skate is to set it to the the same value as the tracking force(2 grams downforce=the 2 setting on anti-skate). The initial controversy, in my mind, came from Harry Pearson's review of the original Koetsu Rosewood-in which he found the best anti-skate value was much less the specified value.

VPI's official word is that no anti-skating is the best anti-skating. Harry does make a gizo that can be adjusted for force and where on the record that force accumulates. That is to say, it can add force at the end of the record, add force at the beginning of the record, or any place on the record depending on how it's set up. Again...for my cartridge Benz Ebony LP, and my VPI tonearm...10.5i, no anti-skate sounds best to my ears.

This is getting pretty confused. Has anyone read any analysis, theoretical or actual measurement, that shows that skating force is higher when playing the inner groove? Distortion generally will be higher because the grooves make progressively sharper turns as the diameter of the record gets smaller, but, I don't see why skating force gets higher. The offset angle does not change, so the variable is friction between the stylus and the groove wall which is, as Stringreen noted, determined by stylus shape and the modulation of the groove which is something generally not dependent on the diameter of the record.

As for the force setting on tonearms, the units for antiskating force are arbitrary, often using numbers intended to correspond with tracking force utilized, but not measuring force by any standard units. You can choose to follow the manufacturer's recommendation or set it by ear.

I use a test record with musical signals that are at progressively higher modulation levels (Shure Obstacle Course Test record). At some point, the cartridge will start mistracking, more so in one channel than the other. I adjust antiskating to even out such distortion. I have found with my Vector arm and Lyra Titan cartridge, with my Graham 1.5t arm and various cartridges, with a friends Graham Phantom arm and Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge, and a friend's SME 309 and Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge, the optimum antiskating force is significantly LESS than the manufacturer's recommendation.

I can't say there is any universal finding here, but I am not surprised when others find that lower values of antiskating work well. I personally haven't tried no antiskating, but, I am not surprised that some owners and manufacturers actually prefer no antiskating.

Stringreen,
I've been playing my 10.5i/Benz LP combo with no antiskate for the past month or two and it's working great. I haven't completely removed the apparatus yet, it's just disengaged. Didn't you say once that you noticed further improvement after completely removing this mechanism?