Skating force is a 'twisting torque'. It occurs only in tonearms that have an angular offset built into them to help minimize tracking error - making it zero at two points across the record instead of one point (which would result if there were no offset.) The amount of the skating force is the result of the friction force (or drag) of the stylus in the groove times a lever arm. The length of this lever arm is the length of a line drawn from the stylus, pependicular to the axis of the cartridge, to the point where it intersects at 90 degrees with a line drawn through the pivot of the tonearm. Since this relationship remains constant, regardless of the stylus' position on the record, the skating force remains essentially constant across the record. I say 'essentially' because there is some very minor variation in the force-of-friction as the velocity of the stylus-in-the-groove slows down toward the center of the record. ANTI skating force, when applied with a spring, can be made to compensate for this (VERY slight) variation, as in SME arms. However, the weight-on-a string method or the twisted-cartridge-leads method will work just fine. Whether AS has an effect (or not) depends on the design of the cartridge. Stiffer suspension material and/or lower VTF reduce the need for AS. Further, the larger the size and strength of the magnetic field in which the coil is immersed, the less AS will make a difference/improvement.
Increasing the VTF will ALWAYS increase the skating force/torque because increasing the VTF increases the friction of the stylus in the groove. The fact that line contact styli produce so much less friction (compared to conical and elliptcal styli) is why moving coil cartridge makers (using line-contact styli) are able to use higher VTF's and stiffer suspensions necessary for the generally superior performance of MC cartridges.
With MM cartridges the situation is reversed. True they customarily track at 1/2 the VTF of MC cartidges, and many of them now employ line contact styli. However, because of their extremely compliant suspensions, it's easy for just a little skating force/torque to pull their tiny magnets out of alignment with the field coils.
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Increasing the VTF will ALWAYS increase the skating force/torque because increasing the VTF increases the friction of the stylus in the groove. The fact that line contact styli produce so much less friction (compared to conical and elliptcal styli) is why moving coil cartridge makers (using line-contact styli) are able to use higher VTF's and stiffer suspensions necessary for the generally superior performance of MC cartridges.
With MM cartridges the situation is reversed. True they customarily track at 1/2 the VTF of MC cartidges, and many of them now employ line contact styli. However, because of their extremely compliant suspensions, it's easy for just a little skating force/torque to pull their tiny magnets out of alignment with the field coils.
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