Antiskating too strong? Help please

acalex

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Hello to everybody,

I was playing vinyl this morning with my Clearaudio Performance and I noticed that when I lift the tonearm at the end of the disc, the arm itself slides quite a lot towards the external part of the disc....does this mean that anti skating is set too strong?

When I need to put the needle down to start playing the disc I haev some problems as the tonearm slides really little towards the external part as well...
 

John Duncan

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That's not normal, no :)

I don't know if there are any gotchas with the Clearaudio arm - probably need Ms Newsome around since I think she had that before she moved to some mental parallel tracker :-D

I would suggest you start from scratch as per the manual

http://www.clearaudio.de/download/laufwerke/new-generation/performance_en.pdf

and have the antiskating set to about half way, which should be OK for most cartridges, and see if that improves things. The only truly accurate way to do it however is to get a test record or a blank (no grooves) disk.
 

acalex

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John Duncan said:
That's not normal, no :)

I don't know if there are any gotchas with the Clearaudio arm - probably need Ms Newsome around since I think she had that before she moved to some mental parallel tracker :-D

I would suggest you start from scratch as per the manual

http://www.clearaudio.de/download/laufwerke/new-generation/performance_en.pdf

and have the antiskating set to about half way, which should be OK for most cartridges, and see if that improves things. The only truly accurate way to do it however is to get a test record or a blank (no grooves) disk.

Thanks a lot JD.

Now I re-set the tracking force to 2,0g (20mN) as indicated in the manual. I reduced a little bit the antiskating and now is much better (it still slides right when the tonearm is colse to the center but by a very small amount). When it is at the beginnning of the disc and I lifit it, it stays straight

I noticed that the screw bolt of the anti-skating was a bit loose, so probably it moved a little bit yesterday when I carried back the TT from the dealer's shop
 

acalex

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Don't understand, even with the antiskating set to minimum the arm still slides right when I am in the process of lowering the needle on the disc to play...
 

floyd droid

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Crikey, is your TT set up at 45 degrees !!. Take the anti-skate off totaly and add it little by little. Try it with none at all first of all. Visualy, from the front, if the cantilever looks as if it is pulling to the right of the carts centre line add a little anti-skate then look again. This is interesting to say the least.
 

acalex

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John Duncan said:
Have brought this thread to the attention of the Clearaudio sages Ms (and Mr) Newsome.

Thanks a lot JD.

This a new video with antiskating at the minimum level

The arms is still...but when I lift up and down it slides towards the beginning of the disc...so if I keep lifting/lowring I can slowly come back to the beginning of the disc (the external part).

Here the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTLgm2UnI5w
 

acalex

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Clare Newsome said:
Couple of questions before we make some suggestions:

1 - what cartridge are you using?

2- how are you measuring the tracking weight?

Thanks!

Clare, thanks for responding! I am using the Clearaudio Maestro MM cartridge and tracking weight of 20nM.
I am measuring the weight using the gauge provided by lowering the needle on the gauge and tighting/untighting the counterweight at the back of the tonearm till the gauge is parallel to the platter.

Of course the needle is sitting on the 2,0g line
 

RobinKidderminster

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I know nuffin. I would ignore the action of the lift off mechanism since it is like a bulldozer lifting a pea. Suggest remove all weight so that arm swings above platter without any mechanical lift and determine how easily the arm moves laterally and virtically. You should be able to blow it easily with vitually no resistance. Use no bias ofcourse. ........
 

Clare Newsome

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When we had the self-same cartridge/arm combo, we used a tracking weight of 2.2-2.3 for best results - that's a good 10% heavier than you have it now. Himself has some other ideas, too - more to follow...
 

acalex

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floyd droid said:
Alcalex. Do i take it that you only got this TT yesterday as you said a screw was loose when you got it home from the dealers ?.

No, I take it back because I wanted him to check something for me on the TT, but when I got home had this problem I didn't have before....
 

acalex

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Clare Newsome said:
When we had the self-same cartridge/arm combo, we used a tracking weight of 2.2-2.3 for best results - that's a good 10% heavier than you have it now. Himself has some other ideas, too - more to follow...

Interesting, thanks a lot. I redid everything, leveled the turntbale using the bubble and adjusting feet, reset the height of the arm so the tube of the arm is parallel to the record when the needle is on the record...

Now I just realised the cartridge is not perfectli aligned as the needle is not pointing to the reference centre...I will also try to set the tracking weight a bit heavier after this....

If you have any other ideas please let me know! Thanks again
 

acalex

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Argh...just realised that there is not tool to undo the screw which keeps the cartridge in place...so I can't realign it.

Might this one be related to the other problem as well? Thanks a lot
 

Clare Newsome

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Try this.

Unscrew and remove the anti-skating magnet bolt completely.

Then re-set the tracking weight to 2.2g. Without the Anti-skating device present you will get a far more accurate reading on your level.

Then screw in the anti-skating magnetic bolt untill you can see about a third of the thread. Then re-fix the locking ring.

That should be it - more info/instructions from Clearaudio here

As far as the cartridge alignment adjustment - perhaps this warrants a return trip to your dealer?
 

acalex

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Clare Newsome said:
Try this.

Unscrew and remove the anti-skating magnet bolt completely.

Then re-set the tracking weight to 2.2g. Without the Anti-skating device present you will get a far more accurate reading on your level.

Then screw in the anti-skating magnetic bolt untill you can see about a third of the thread. Then re-fix the locking ring.

That should be it - more info/instructions from Clearaudio here

As far as the cartridge alignment adjustment - perhaps this warrants a return trip to your dealer?

Thanks a lot!

When I measure the weight, does it matter where the gauge is placed? I mean, should it be placed next to the center?

EDIT: Done! And without the bolt it was indeed much easier the reading...
 

acalex

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Done everything...is there any test record/tool I can buy to check if I have done everything properly?

Anyway...even if everything set I the arm still slides a little bit right when I lift the arm....much less now but still...
 

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