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Does anyone want to discuss tonearm anti-skating?

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Posted by George M on April 17, 2002 at 14:27:53

Maybe someone who knows about this stuff can show me where I’m off base.

After a lot of tinkering, I have found the anti-skating force that works best is almost no anti-skating at all. It is said that due to tonearm overhang (the tonearm extends past the center of rotation) the rotation of the record exerts a force which pulls the stylus toward the center of the record. Skating can be seen on a test record which has a groove-free track.

But in thinking about what’s happening at the stylus/groove interface -- if the tonearm is completely friction free and exerts no lateral force, the force of the stylus on the lateral walls of the groove, it seems to me, should be equal regardless of skating. Skating may "push" the stylus toward the center, but with the stylus/tonearm free to move laterally in response to the force, there should still be equal pressure at both sides of the stylus/groove interface. When tonearm anti-skate correction is applied, the tonearm pushes the stylus against the groove’s outer wall. This will make the tonearm stand still on a grooveless test track, but doesn’t it make the stylus put more force on the groove's outer wall than the inner?

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