Ancient AR Turntable with NO anti skate

rotarius,

I agree with your statement and have always used antiskate  I am just surprised that the AR tonearm didn't appear to need it.  I could see no discernible skating, which I can easily see when I remove the antiskate from my tonearms.

And, to my surprise the old AR sounded very good.

N.

Well, you could purposely not level the TT such that the tonearm drifts in the outward direction when zero balancing the arm.  That can help get by without a bias mechanism.  If everything is correctly set-up and the tonearm bearings don't produce a drag, I have always found a channel imbalance without a bias force.

Norman,

There are many considerations we're aware of today that were not well known or appreciated in the 1950s and early '60s.  

Another example was cartridge alignment (overhang and offset).  While some engineers studied this even pre-WW2, it did not become more broadly known until the mid-late '70s after an article by Mitch Cotter was published in "The Audio Critic".  That magazine may have elicited concerns for other reasons but credit is due for raising awareness to the importance of proper cartridge alignment.

In spite of such limitations, some older tables such as the AR-XA are still capable of providing a satisfying musical experience, just as you learned.

stringreen,

I am guessing from you comments that you don't use antiskate?  When I removed the anitskate from my two tonearms, the sound changed.  It was very good, but I would have to really do a lot of comparing to state that it sounded better.  I can see though, given the difference in sound why some might decide to leave it off. 

My friend with the AR, said that in some literature from AR that they mention that the skating force changes throughout the play of the record which makes sense.  Given that it is impossible then to continually correct the skating force throughout the entire record they decided not to use it on their turntables.

I really hadn't thought of it that way, but after seeing how my stylus pulls to the center spindle with the skating force off, I just can't bring myself to leave the skating force off.

Remarkably, the old AR arm didn't respond like my Grace and SME.  It looked good when tracking.

Norman

pryso

In spite of such limitations, some older tables such as the AR-XA are still capable of providing a satisfying musical experience, just as you learned.

Excellent comment and I agree. 

Norman