Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site angband.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!ihnp1!ihnp4!qantel!dual!mordor!angband!sjc
From: sjc@angband.UUCP (Steve Correll)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Anti-skating
Message-ID: <76@angband.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 17:32:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: angband.76
Posted: Thu Aug 29 17:32:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 21:50:56 EDT
References: <310@ubvax.UUCP>
Organization: S-1 Project, LLNL
Lines: 35

> ...alternately cue the tonearm onto the record and
> back up.  The anti-skating is NOT adjusted correctly if you notice any
> apparent bending of the cantilever from straight toward you as it
> settles onto and leaves the record (horizontally, that is--it will, of
> course, be seen to "bend" vertically due to the VTF).  That's all there
> is to it...

My curmudgeonly opinion is that the best solution to the tonearm skating
problem is to buy a CD player, and the next best solution is to ignore the
problem. But that doesn't really answer your question.

You're wise to suspect the calibration of the antiskating dial on your
tonearm. But I wonder (mind you, I don't know) whether your method is
any more accurate. Most tonearms behave at least slightly like your
friend's, drifting outward under the influence of the antiskating
mechanism as they descend toward the record surface.  Even if the
antiskating is adjusted precisely, I would expect that at the instant
the stylus touches the record surface, the inertia of the tonearm would
cause it to continue moving sideways for a moment, deflecting the
cantilever horizontally.

One canonical approach is to play a stereo test record with identical
high-level sinusoids recorded on both channels, watch the output on an
oscilloscope, and adjust the antiskating so that both channels clip
identically. But that assumes you have both such a test record and an
oscilloscope; and it's still only an approximation because music isn't
a sinusoid, and the stylus friction in the groove may differ.

A simpler approach is to listen. If, on loud passages, you hear
distortion from one one channel and not the other, readjust your
antiskating accordingly; if not, worry instead about the deficit,
nuclear warfare, or the declining morals of the young.
-- 
                                                           --Steve Correll
sjc@s1-b.ARPA, ...!decvax!decwrl!mordor!sjc, or ...!ucbvax!dual!mordor!sjc