Did I kill my anti-skate?

[ehou5000]

I have a Technics SL-D2 that was working just fine and dandy. I played around with the weight and anti-skate and saw the anti-skate was working just fine. 

 

Tonight I couldn't sleep so I decided to see if I could adjust the tonearm height on this guy. After loosening some screws I determined that I could not adjust the tone arm height. I continued to reset the weight and everything and noticed the anti-skate dial was doing jack shit. I have the platter spinning, needle down on a blank piece of vinyl and am seeing no motion when the anti skate is at 0 or 3. So now I'm wondering if I did something to inhibit its function or if I am just doing something wrong in the process altogether. Any help?

[thebiglebowski]

From another forum and a dude who claims to have 30 years industry experience:

 

RE: Anti-skate

You really can't set anti-skate properly using a flat record with no grooves and using the test tracks mentioned is also suspect.

The "skating" force that you are trying to counteract is created by the friction in the groove pulling at an angle against the pivot of the arm. The friction in a modulated groove is likely to be substantially more that that of the tip of the stylus riding on flat vinyl. Because of this you will set the anti-skate too low using this method.

The problem with the test records as mentioned above also has to do with friction. This type of test record has been around a long time - we still have a Shure test record from the 70s that was only sold to dealers with the same type of tracks on it. The idea was to go from the least modulated tracks to the most until you reached the point where you were getting breakup and then balance the breakup in both channels. The problem here is that most modern cartridges will not run into a tracking problem until you hit one of the two highest modulation levels and some will track all levels cleanly. Therefor, you end up setting the anti-skating based on a much higher level of modulation than you would generally run into on normal records, with the possible exception of short, really loud passages. More modulation creates more friction so you will likely end up with too much anti-skate using this method although it will be closer than using a blank record.

When setting up a turntable with an unreliable anti-skate dial (read almost any Japanese turntable) I start with the Shure test record to get it close and then fine-tune by ear. With Linn and Rega tables/arms I set it as marked and then fine tune by ear. Setting anti-skate by ear is really the same as setting the tracking force by ear: listen to one setting then change it slightly. Which of the two sounds more tuneful, flows better and is the cleanest. If the musicians seem to play better on one setting with more tonal control of their instruments, that is the right setting. Go above and below the setting you start with by one or two tenths of a gram (whatever it takes to make a clearly audible difference to you) and then narrow it down to smaller increments. When you find the place where it is most musical you are done.

[thebiglebowski]

I'm all for my records sounding as good as possible but I am far from having a good "musical ear". I can't tune my guitar without electronics, I doubt I can tune my turntable.

 

Set the anti-skate to the level of the counterweight determined by the stylus. Let us know if there are any problems with playback. If you think you tune with 100% accuracy, you are probably on your own. If there aren't any sound issues with this setting, stick with the heuristic and don't try and look for a problem where there isn't one.