Left Channel LP Distortion

I set anti skate using the HiFi News Test LP. If anything, the right channel was
most difficult to set-up with anti skate. The left channel would play cleanly
sooner than the right.

Tonight, I played one particularly offending LP, and I took the antiskate
completely through its cycle with no effect. IMO, the LP is damaged...perhaps by
the original owner playing it on a table with an arm that had improper antiskate?

or just a bad pressing

Tvad,

forget setting AS using that test record! As Doug Deacon has pointed out, those tracking grooves are way beyond anything a normal record would put a stylus through. Most likely you can get much better results with far less AS. We've traded the metal AS weights on our Triplanars with a few o-rings. I believe I have less than 1 gram of weight on the cantilever for AS. You will get much better micro-detail and timbre with less AS.

When I encounter left channel distortion I usually try to increase VTF by a few tenths of a gram (again, o-rings used for VTF find adjustment). If that doesn't improve things I write it off to damage or just a bad pressing. It does come with the territory with some used LPs.

Tvad,
I think you're on the right track about the previous owner and improper setup. No one(including myself) that I knew back in the day even knew setup was important. We just played our discs on whatever we could afford.

Thanks everyone. It seems unanimous that the HiFi News LP anti skate bands should not be used to set anti skate...who knew!?