Left Channel LP Distortion

Tvad, Stringreen, et al: Isn't a bit disingenuous (in a nice way) to recommend using low or no anti-skate with the Triplanar, as a blanket statement? IME, the amount needed will vary depending on the cartridge and probably also depending upon the LP. I tried going without AS with my Triplanar/ Urushi combo, and there was mucho distortion in the R channel. I gradually increased AS from zero to the point where the recording sounded "right" (an LP I know by heart) and ended up with the normal Triplanar weight just a bit less than half way up the shaft that it mounts on. When I mentioned this finding once before, including the additional fact that my Urushi sounds best with "some" damping, someone here suggested that this was evidence that one should not use the Urushi on a Triplanar. I beg to disagree on that. The reason we pay big bucks for this tonearm is because it is so adaptable to use with a wide variety of cartridges. There's no reason to throw those features out the door and limit one's self to only perfect matches. So I would advise a newbie to listen w/ no AS and then gradually add AS as you perceive it to be needed.

Stringreen, Thanks for the reassurance. Thankfully also, I did not need it. I agree completely with your statement about how to use damping and what it does to the sound, good and bad. I was just trying to say that some of the advice given on this forum is a bit too rigid, if read and absorbed by a newbie who has no backlog of personal experience.

Doug, You made an interesting point re anti-skate. But notwithstanding the imperfect way in which it is applied, isn't the end result supposed to be the minimizing of forces that throw the stylus tip against either side of the groove (not just one side vs the other)? Thus AS per se is not an evil to be avoided; it's a tool to be used judiciously. Maybe that's what you meant.