Sprinter1104 Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 3 hours ago, canyonman said: Well depending on who to believe on this one, Harry says it sounds better with AS. Peter says you would not believe the number of cartridges he has seen under a microscope with one side almost gone from the stylus from lack of AS!!! Now I feel that how could it possibly sound better if properly setup and then one side of the stylus is worn away because no AS was used??? You are correct, who to believe? According to VPI: VPI has conducted careful listening tests and determined that every tonearm we tried sounded better with its mechanical anti-skating disabled and the tracking force very slightly increased. My thought process is to follow VPI's recommendation regarding improved sound with no anti skate applied, understanding Peter is likely going to retip my carts sooner rather than later. He's already retyped my zephyr. Anyway, I like the way my system sounds with out the anti skate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 6 hours ago, LarryC said: Interesting. It seems to me that using the AS would keep the cantilever more centered when the stylus is moving along the groove, creating the friction that pulls the cart and cantilever sideways in the opposite direction as I understand it. So, I myself would always keep it active in playing records. However, the AS probably should be disabled while aligning the cantilever. I have seen it pull the cart to the right (looking at it head-on), displacing the cantilever to one side and messing up the geometry when using a static alignment tool. Larry, That is correct I edited my earlier comment to say that Harry believes it sounds better without AS. Again I feel that if you do not use AS the stylus can not be centered in the groove wall... While using AS will keep the stylus centered in the groove wall and prevent the wearing of the stylus on one side... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Actually, the main reason I usually keep the AS active is to keep the arm/cart from skating inward when floating the needle into the lead-in groove. The lip of the record slopes inward, which often gives the cart an extra inward push and rakes the stylus inward across the opening grooves. AS will often prevent, or at least mitigate, that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 15 hours ago, Sprinter1104 said: You are correct, who to believe? According to VPI: VPI has conducted careful listening tests and determined that every tonearm we tried sounded better with its mechanical anti-skating disabled and the tracking force very slightly increased. My thought process is to follow VPI's recommendation regarding improved sound with no anti skate applied, understanding Peter is likely going to retip my carts sooner rather than later. He's already retyped my zephyr. Anyway, I like the way my system sounds with out the anti skate. @Sprinter1104, I won't argue the merits of what Harry says and what you hear. I had a Scoutmaster for a long time (7 years) and I tried it both ways, my feeling was this. It may sound a lil better without AS for a short while but, as time goes on and the stylus begins to wear you have already gotten use to the sound and probably would not notice the gradual lost in sound quality as the stylus begins to wear. Because of the wear to the stylus the sound will become slightly unbalanced and over a period of time degrade until one day it manifest itself in a much larger way!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 I use a Fonzi meter attached to a Richie Cunningham 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprinter1104 Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 3 hours ago, canyonman said: @Sprinter1104, I won't argue the merits of what Harry says and what you hear. I had a Scoutmaster for a long time (7 years) and I tried it both ways, my feeling was this. It may sound a lil better without AS for a short while but, as time goes on and the stylus begins to wear you have already gotten use to the sound and probably would not notice the gradual lost in sound quality as the stylus begins to wear. Because of the wear to the stylus the sound will become slightly unbalanced and over a period of time degrade until one day it manifest itself in a much larger way!!! That's a very good point, and one I hadn't considered. Thanks for the insight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted October 20, 2016 Author Share Posted October 20, 2016 Your welcome, I just thought that I would share what I know!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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