AT VM95 ML anti skate issue

I have a 95ML. It tracks good and sibilance is minimal. But it’s there if it’s in the recording or bad pressing. Can’t do anything about that.

 

Might be my ‘problem’ exactly… maybe I’m too OCD about this and should better just listen to music. Now I’m almost searching for sibilance distortion and in what channel etc etc… resulting in playing mostly problematic, hot difficult to track records

 

I tried the groove less disc method and it suggests increasing bias v other methods. I tend to just use my ears and start with Bias a little less than downforce. Groove less method didn't sound the best anyway but there were no large differences in left to right balance.

 

Well… I’m going to check and replace headshell leads first (a low cost neccessity anyway), check the AS range with a blank disc (Shure method) and doublecheck this with what I find when applying the Soundsmith method.

I’ll report my findings.

 

Less than ideal, demonstrations I've watched indicate it results in slightly lower a-s values.

You can use the lands between the runout part of the groove. It requires a little more patience but is still very doable.

 

This brings up an interesting Q. Shouldn't the pictures of stylus wear we are seeing at VE be showing more uneven wear, if the too high A-S is as prevalent as some claim?

If anything I think a slow drift in is likely just changing the side the greater wear occurs on.

Regardless I'm going to optimize for playback performance because I'm using easily replaceable and available styli. I guess if I were using vintage or MC stuff, I may be more concerned?

 

I know it can be done this way, but I’m a little afraid the needle skips all the way through (accidently) onto the paper label… maybe setting the AS a little too high might prevent this… and then work my way down to accomplish ‘slowly drifting inward’ AS optimum (all variables aside).

 

Well the stylus shouldn't skip onto the label with no A-S at all.

 

You have to look at multiple angles. The pics at VE are very informative but they are mostly focused on one specific angle, at least the last few posts. There is a retipper I follow on social media and you can occasionally see all sorts of cart mishaps including uneven wear in his photos. He works on a lot of different cartridges also.

I would say uneven wear is a case of "everyone is doing it" but it does happen. It happened to a friend of mine where he bought a set of secondhand DJ tables and the included carts were so worn on one edge that output in one channel was decreased by 1-2dB. Obviously this is an extreme case and this doesn't really happen very often in home hi-fi listening situation but it does show that uneven wear is a thing.

I wouldn't worry too much about your own setup as, IIRC, you are using a custom DIY tonearm that may not behave in the same way as a more conventional off-the-shelf tonearm.

One thing I can say is that it can be difficult to use the blank record method with certain extreme stylus profiles on conventional tonearms because the friction with these styli is so low. I also think that all these different methods to set AS are a starting point, and it is quite common for people to further fiddle with AS with actual records of music they are familiar with. Whether it makes things better or worse is another story. Not something for anyone to be super worried about though.

 

ok, so….little bit of audio engineering. Sibilance is the constant sounds in a vocal being unnaturally loud. Lots of factors go into why this might be. No great tracking stylus will rid you of that. Ever.

so, what does it do? It should sound like a loud clear SSSS. Not SHH—which is what happens when the cart mistracks it and distorts the consonants. Basically, it makes the sibilance that is present in to recording ugly, distorted, and sometimes weirdly stereo (that vocal isn’t stereo)….

I use very bright intimate vocals to tune my alignment. Glenn Frey on “it’s your world now”—which is both crazy sibilant AND the last track up near the label….I have a promo copy of Valerie Carter’s Wild Child that retained its HF and has some tracking challenges….and a MFSL of The Pretender that sounds like they but a hefty big super high frequency EQ boost that makes his vocal harder to track throughout. Like they were cleaning up the consonants by shifting the frequency up—put in turn cut that to vinyl, which requires a better than the average conical to track that properly.

long winded way to say—the tracking gets rid of the “ugly” not the S being so loud.

 

Yeah I guess my point is that the difference in drifting inward or remaining stationary may be in the hundredths of a gram out at the stylus. Like, the difference from me using a 4.5g or 5.5g hanging weight .5" from the pivot. With the 4.5g weight, my stylus may slowly drift inwards. With the 5g weight, it may stay in place (these are hypothetical #'s absolutely but precise relatively).

With an effective length of 9.18", 4.5(.5)/9.18 = .245g, and 5(.5)/9.18 = .272g, so we're talking a difference of .027g. By the time any difference shows up as wear on a stylus, I'd think you'd be ready for stylus replacement anyhow. Those used DJ styli you mention are a curiosity to me, as that much wear on the right side should mean there was enough anti-skating to cause playback issue (skip repeats namely). But who knows what DJs are up to, I've met a couple with all sorts of weird ideas.

Every way I test my methods, I get positive results. The latest is the Telarc Omnidisc, which has a group of tones around 1000-Hz which slowly increases in amplitude. With a stylus drifting inward, the onset of right-channel distortion comes fairly early, some seconds before left-channel. If the stylus is just at the point where it is stationary on the vinyl, the onset of distortion comes at just about the same time in both channels.

Anyway, seeing as the OP is also using a hanging weight method, I thought my input useful given I use the same method, and have studied the subject of anti-skating fairly extensively as I've tried to make sense of it, so I can apply it to my own arm.

 

Oddly enough, they didn't skip. It's worth noting those cartridges typically track at 3-5g, whereas the typical home listening/hi-fi cartridge is more like 1.5-2.5g.

 

I've got a dial and spring antiskate mechanism on my AT LP120X with a VM95ml. I know they're not mega accurate so I said to myself, just do it by feel.... Just watch the arm and listen... And turn the dial with your thumb without looking... Bang on. And weirdly the dial reads exactly what it should. Yeah, it's a compromise. But it's working well so far (til that spring goes ping, eh?)

 

I meant when they were originally being used. If I take my theoretical 4.5 or 5g weight, and increase it until the point the stylus starts moving outwards on ungrooved vinyl, I'll start getting skip-repeats on vinyl that has what I'd call a more shallow groove, or is highly worn, or has a large enough piece of whatever in the groove.

I know some DJs do this, but again, they do all sorts of crazy things that heard about.

 

This one was posted yesterday by member aaaakkkk on the "Stylus Evaluation Imaging" thread.
Stylus Evaluation Imaging - Page 59- Vinyl Engine
The OC9 on the left looks like it could an uneven antiskate candidate.

 

Weird, I just saw this over @ VE and asked how common they were finding uneven wear, then come back here and you've got it.

My point remains, however, that that isn't from a record that was standing still on ungrooved vinyl, that would have tracked outwards fairly rapidly.

 

Thats cool. I was wonder how ur ML sounds with the 120x. I used to have a 120x. I considered it my first step into real audiophile land. The only problem I had was with the damped cueing. And I learned that was a fairly common issue.

I really liked that TT.

 

Yeah, it's a nice table for the price. I only got back into vinyl a couple years ago. Most of my collection is digital. So I only wanted a table for the odd thing I can't get on CD. It serves that purpose well. The ML stylus is great.

 

The soundstage shouldnt be affected much by AS, just tracking.

More Im pretty sure.