Antiskate?

Hello guys!

My continuous journey of vinyl is getting more and more confusing!

I've noticed on a few albums that the distortion problems I have (on two yes albums I have, Close to the edge and Fragile) may be caused by antiskate, which is controled by a small dial that is near the tonearm. It goes from 0 to 2. I had it set at 2 before, and I just recently was told via an article to switch to 0.

However, in no other albums do I notice distortion at the end of the album! Is it a coincidence these are Yes albums and skip? I got them from the same resource, showing that it may be the albums... but maybe it's something else? I think my tonearm weight is fine, and my cartridge is aligned.

What else could it be?

I don't notice any change at all in sound quality when I made the antiskate settings different. Might it be somethign else?

Should the antiskate be as low as possible?

Thanks!

 

The rule of thumb is to set anti-skating to the same setting as the tracking force. Most turntable manuals including mine suggest this, but most high end cartridge manuals may have more specific suggestions. BTW, My Shure M97XE cart manual suggests to set anti-skating the same as the tracking force.

 

I doubt it's the antiskate. The antiskate is there to counteract the natural tendency of the arm to 'drift in', as i understand it. I have always went with setting it to the same as the VTF, as recommended by Goldring for the GR-1.
With your Elektra aligned, VTF at 2 as suggested(max for the Elektra) it should track fine in general. Make sure you have it positioned level(the deck).

 

That's correct--having equal force on each side of the stylus lowers distortion as much as possible. It's not a huge amount, but it's still important. I don't trust any dial though--on the couple of turntables I had with dialed-in antiskating, they were off the mark a bit. A grooveless record will get you close enough to where it should be (adjust while playing so the tonearm stands still, so it doesn't pull to the inside or drift to the outside). I've checked with one of the Shure test records and it was just about close enough to not bother tweaking further. The dial is still good if you have no other way to set it.

My guess for this problem, though, could be any of the following: 1) the vinyl is worn on the inner grooves by a previous owner with a cheap or worn stylus; 2) the vinyl is cut too hot and the cartridge can't track it; 3) bad pressing? My most annoying problem with used records is groove wear, and it is always worse on the inner grooves.

 

Unfortunately, it's often not visible to the naked eye. Really nasty cases are as you describe, though, with graying of the grooves.

Bear in mind heavily modulated grooves (cymbals and such) will *sometimes* have a grayish appearance even before the record has ever been played. Vintage 7" 45's exhibiting this aren't that uncommon as many were cut pretty hot to carve through the AM murk. I've picked up quite a few NOS/unplayed vintage 45's over the years that looked like that.

Still, a visual inspection won't tell the whole story. How the record plays is the big test. Kinda sounds like you might have some worn Yes LPs, which would make them typical Yes LPs. I wouldn't sweat it, though, if that's the case. There are zillions of Yes pressings floating around out there, not to mention some pretty good CDs.

 

Thanks for the responses guys!

I have basically narowed it down to VTF, but I don't have anything to measure it with, so the first thing I'm doing when I get some cash is getting some isolation feet and the Shure tracking gauge.

Appreciate it guys!