Anti-skate help needed please!

Posted by jcb2005 (A) on January 20, 2012 at 07:39:23

Please help me trouble-shoot an issue with my setup.

My system: VPI Classic II, Classic arm, Lyra Skala cart (recently refurbished with a new cantilever and stylus by Soundsmith).

I recently filled the tonearm pivot cup with the VPI damping oil in an effort to tame some high frequency breakup I was hearing. I think this tweak was a success. I had never used the oil in 6 years of owning VPI tables, but I think it makes a difference.

Soon after this event, I noticed that, when placed in the groove of a spinning record, the cantilever immediately settles at an angle to the cart body. If you think of the stylus tip as a pivot, the cantilever points inward towards the center of the record, no longer parallel with the cart, nor with the record groove (as far as I can tell). The angle is so severe that I can see it with the naked eye, and can see that the cantilever shaft settles in against the (right) side of the hole in the cart where the cantilever enters. It's fairly dramatic.

OK, I thought. I'll check out my cart alignment. I then spent 3 hours checking and rechecking my alignment on three protractors (VPI, Mint, DB). The alignment looks correct, and if I lower the stylus onto one of the protractors or onto a non-moving record, I do not see the cantilever angling away from straight.

So, then I think it must be anti-skate. Maybe the skating force is pulling the cartridge towards the center of the record and pulling the cantilever at an angle. I had never before used VPI's mechanical anti-skate. It took me a bit of tweaking to get it working, but I've now got it so that I can pretty easily adjust it for more or less anti-skate force. First, I adjust it so that the stylus slowly travels towards the center of the record at a record's lead out grooves. (This is what Soundsmith recommends.) With this amount of anti-skate applied, at the end of the record the cantilever sits correctly in the groove (straight and parallel). But if I drop the needle in at the first 1/3 or the side, the cantilever and cart body are not straight; the angle is still there. If I adjust the anti-skate force to counteract the angling at the first 1/3 of the side, then the end of the record has entirely too much force, and the needle will skip out of the groove and travel towards the outside of the record.

What's going on here? Does the VPI anti-skate vary from the beginning of a side to the end? Does the natural "skating" force vary from beginning to end? Is it possible that my Skala's suspension is damaged and thus particularly sensitive to skating and anti-skating forces? Might my problems be related to the use of the damping oil? (I have not tried removing it.)

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this...

Jeffrey
Brooklyn, NY

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Topic - Anti-skate help needed please! - jcb2005 07:39:23 01/20/12 (30)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - timeltel 10:20:31 01/22/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - Retipper 12:41:42 01/21/12 (3)

Peter, a little elaboration? - Dave Pogue 09:11:55 01/23/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - srdavis2000 16:46:26 01/21/12 (1)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - Retipper 14:18:45 01/23/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - srdavis2000 11:21:47 01/21/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - SgreenP@MSN.com 09:14:11 01/21/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - dirtyvinyl 09:10:54 01/21/12 (0)

Comparing photo 4 with photo 2.... - Mcmann57 07:53:35 01/21/12 (0)

Photo 4/4 - jcb2005 07:01:51 01/21/12 (2)

RE: Photo 4/4 - DaleH 08:05:22 01/22/12 (0)

[Is it possible to post more than one photo in a message?] - Waxxy 09:07:11 01/21/12 (0)

Photo 3/4 - jcb2005 06:58:52 01/21/12 (0)

photo 2/4 - jcb2005 06:56:30 01/21/12 (0)

photos 1/4 - jcb2005 06:51:25 01/21/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - drystream 06:12:32 01/21/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - John Elison 21:30:45 01/20/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - SgreenP@MSN.com 21:05:19 01/20/12 (0)

Anti-skating is overrarted, most good arms don't have any provision for it. - jihad 16:21:56 01/20/12 (9)

So the Graham arms are not 'good' arms, eh? nt - andyr 19:20:24 01/22/12 (0)

B.S. - vinylphile 06:41:34 01/21/12 (1)

B.S.S. - jihad 10:41:11 01/21/12 (0)

What? - Lew 20:49:33 01/20/12 (5)

Trendy? - jihad 06:17:51 01/21/12 (3)

Where is your list? - Lew 19:34:00 01/21/12 (2)

I don't see it as trendy. - jihad 07:15:23 01/22/12 (0)

Think you'll be waiting a LOOONG time for that! (nt) - vinylphile 06:09:16 01/22/12 (0)

+1 - Tre' 21:42:54 01/20/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - Mcmann57 14:15:06 01/20/12 (0)

RE: Anti-skate help needed please! - Tre' 08:35:41 01/20/12 (0)

Anti-skate help needed please!

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