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I could never get the anti-skate of my Rega RB-300 adjusted correctly, and had to live with the results: mistracking errors like one-channel distortion and groove echo. No matter the setting, the tonearm always wanted to skate out - either a little (AS=0) or a lot (AS=3).Looking at a spare RAM mount I had lying around I suddenly had an inspiration: DIY anti-skate device with string and weight. Grabbed a binder clip, some string, and a small nut (1.5g). In less than 5 minutes I had it installed.
The tonearm is now transformed! Tracking errors are gone, sound is pure and clean in both channels. No more grove echo. I needed to play a little bit with the anti-skate dial to get the needle to sit in the middle of my test record's anti-skate track (no groove track). It was easy.
Is it a perfect solution? Probably not. But the sonic difference is night and day and that's the only thing that really counts.
So if you're experiencing my issue, try something like this. It doesn't need sophisticated parts. Now that I know it works, I might replace the polyester string with fishing line and find a dedicated anti-skate weight. And I will probably want my RAM mount back for use elsewhere. A block of wood or black pipe would work well.
Edits: 03/10/23 03/10/23 03/10/23Follow Ups:
It looks like the anti-skate force is being applied in the wrong direction...... It's in essence a "pro-skate" force......
An outward force is being applied *behind* the pivot.... So on the cartridge side, in front of the pivot, the force is in the other direction..... The cartridge in your setup has the force being applied *inward* toward the spindle, the opposite direction of what anti-skate bias is supposed to do.
If you look at "weight" based anti-skate that's applied behind the pivot, this is an *inward* force (see picture below... the weight is hanging on the left side of the pivot) ..... So the force applied to the cartridge in front of the pivot is toward the outside, countering the skating force at the stylus..... Which is the correct direction.
Is that a #10, #8 or #6?
I hate my RP8 anti-skate adjustment, so I may just try something like that.
Skating force pulls the stylus towards the inner groove so anti-skating devices apply an opposite force. From your photos it looks like you are applying an outwards torque to the counter weight. But, because that force is behind the bearing, won't it be applying more inwards force at the stylus and increasing skating?
Also curious about 'groove echo' - are you thinking of pre-echo before a track starts that you hear in the left channel? If so, that is caused by the master lacquer 'springing back' before it was plated. It is not related to playback set-up.
One point. Skate force causes the tone arm to want to move to the center of the record. The stylus is stuck in the groove so the tone arm is moved towards the center of the record and the cantilever stays where is. So the cantilever is moved to the right (as viewed from the front) vs. the body of the cartridge and the suspension can get tweaked that way permanently making it look like the stylus was pulled away from the center of the record. So I can see where someone might think that they need to "pull" the stylus toward the center of the record when they really need to pull the tone arm away from the center of the record.P.S. It is clear to me that his picture is not inverted.
Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
Edits: 03/10/23 03/10/23
.
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
Yes! It's more of an "anti-skate dampener" or an "anti" anti-skate device. When normally set to 0 (anti-skate disabled) my tonearm doesn't pull inwards (like it should), it pulls outwards. So this tweak overcomes the outward pull and instead pulls in the opposite direction with equal force. Like I mentioned, a groove-less track from my test record confirms this. It now sits dead in the middle of the groove-less track.
Edits: 03/10/23
I just read in a few different places that the anti skate device on the RB300 tonearm applies quite a bit of anti skate force even when set to zero and it was designed that way.
How much tracking force are you using?
Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
yes the Rega's do that, and also many of their variants and not just the 300. Having a cart track at 2 grams or at least 1.5 is pretty much necessary with the setting at the min
defective and applying too much anti skate force even when set to zero.
So you have added some skating force to compensate.
Very good.
Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
a design flaw perhaps, Rega's been like this for a long time with many of their tone arms. I wonder what the aftermarket modifiers do to it...
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