Rega RP1 Turntable Anti Skate Setting?

I'm running an Elys 2 cartridge and last night I decided to give it a go with the anti stake set at 0 and was surprised at how much better it sounded. Anyone else experience this? If not anyone else with this table (or the P1) willing to give it a try and report what you hear?

 

I've found the same thing with my p1 using various carts such as the 2m blue, Shure 97xe, and my personal favorite the Nagaoka MP110.

 

This is a semi-known rega tweak. I believe the anti-skate spring is thought to be resonating. My arms that have magnetic anti-skate don't affect the sound, only the tracking at the limit. The effect varies with the different arm models, but they're all the same design.

 

I believe this one is magnetic...no.

 

The Rega anti-skating mechanism is a frictionless, magnetic system. The amount of force with any anti-skating system should vary with the record as the record will vary in the modulations and thus the force seen by the arm will fluctuate with that record. Since it is dynamic, no anti-skating system is able to keep up with the changes. The best any system can do is to set an average and then make adjustment for the arm as it travels across the record since the modulations are tighter at the center of the record. The Rega system is one of the most fluidly adjustable and the least interfering. That said, it's still only an approximation and cannot change dynamically with each Lp.

Typically users of Rega tables or arms will set the anti-skating at a very slightly lower setting than the tracking force is set to. I just set them up right at where the tracking force is or just under it and then forget about it. People will turn it further down on some recordings and then find that it should be up a bit on others. It's just too tweaky to worry about IMO. You should have some anti-skating force as it stands to reason that it was included in practically all hi-fi tonearm designs due to the real skating forces presented by a moving record groove. being magnetic, you can't really turn it completely off, just way down to where it has little to no effect, thus the zero point on the scale. Likewise, you cannot have it generate positive skating force as its system provides only the magnetic force in one direction.

What you were thinking of was the stupid "tweak" of breaking a Rega arm that uses a spring for tracking force. Only their better arms use that system and it is indeed better as it provides a positive and dynamic tracing force to the stylus. The entry level arm does not have any such dynamic tracking force adjustment, instead it relies soley on the counterweight.
-Bill

 

Thanks for that explanation, KT88/Bill! I actually understood it. Right now my AS is set at about 1 with the VTF at 1.75 > using the Nag MP110.

 

What should one expect to hear if it's set too low?

 

Imaging can shift a bit as well as channel balance to a lesser degree if it is either too low or too high. Most people cannot hear a difference of +/- 1g if challenged to do so. Many recordings and pressings have flaws as great, so it's very subtle.

When listening to my Beatles "stereo" recordings for example, they sound just as silly with it set correctly, a bit high, or a bit low. I have a strange compulsion to go put on "A Day in the Life" now.
-Bill

 

Glad to hear that it was not verbose and without point.
-Bill

 

Interesting. I am waiting on my digital scale to come in, so I've had to eyeball tracking force for my AT440MLA...anti-skate set accordingly based on that. Besides the platter "wobble" that mine has (seen in several YT vids before I acquired this 2nd hand), this table sounds great to me on my humble little system. It's definitely getting me by until I can move back up again. Oh...platter wobble doesn't seem to affect anything that I can hear, it's just annoying that it's there.

 

I do the same on my RP1........Anti is set to just below tracking force. Seems to work fine for me with the Denon DL-110 cart I have in there.

 

I'll try to tweak mine and see if I hear anything different.