I ditched my anti-skate

[Hari Iyer]

I have now been using my Thorens TD-145 MKII for over 1.5+ years. I have taken great care in setting them up, levelling, VTA, azimuth, tracking force, tone arm weight, bearing lubrication anti-skating etc. etc. and even after best of my efforts found that the right channel to be a bit bright and slightly distorted than the left. Though the tone arm did not indicate any leaning to the front or the rear, this right channel brightness screwed up the listening of otherwise nice table. I had tried even zero anti-skating but there was only a slight improvement.

After doing some research have noticed that many turntable owners completely remove the anti-skating mechanism for this issue as they feel that anti-skating backward force push to stylus outward there by rubbing the grooves of the right channel more than required. This is particularly true about light weigh tone arm line mine (7gm) and high compliance cartridge like mine (ortofon OM-30). These properties cause the stylus to wobble in the groove if there is a mis-match in the anti-skating numbers. So earlier this month i gathered courage and dismantled the anti-skate from my Thorens and since then running without any anti-skate.

This removed all the squeaks and bright right channel and both both channels to similar tone and texture. Also they now sound very organic, liquid and holographic. I am not sure how this magnetic anti-skating actually work for my tonearm, but can say for sure that something was certainly wrong with that mechanism, because even with zero anti-skating the issue was not getting resolved.

Thanks for looking.

 

[kissenchand]

Deep thinking and observation!

 

[dhombay]

I have now been using my Thorens TD-145 MKII for over 1.5+ years. I have taken great care in setting them up, levelling, VTA, azimuth, tracking force, tone arm weight, bearing lubrication anti-skating etc. etc. and even after best of my efforts found that the right channel to be a bit bright and slightly distorted than the left. Though the tone arm did not indicate any leaning to the front or the rear, this right channel brightness screwed up the listening of otherwise nice table. I had tried even zero anti-skating but there was only a slight improvement.

After doing some research have noticed that many turntable owners completely remove the anti-skating mechanism for this issue as they feel that anti-skating backward force push to stylus outward there by rubbing the grooves of the right channel more than required. This is particularly true about light weigh tone arm line mine (7gm) and high compliance cartridge like mine (ortofon OM-30). These properties cause the stylus to wobble in the groove if there is a mis-match in the anti-skating numbers. So earlier this month i gathered courage and dismantled the anti-skate from my Thorens and since then running without any anti-skate.

This removed all the squeaks and bright right channel and both both channels to similar tone and texture. Also they now sound very organic, liquid and holographic. I am not sure how this magnetic anti-skating actually work for my tonearm, but can say for sure that something was certainly wrong with that mechanism, because even with zero anti-skating the issue was not getting resolved.

Thanks for looking.

Hi Hari......Does your TA auto lift at the end of the dead wax work consistently? I have been having issues with it and cannot seem to find a solution to this. Tried changing the magnet distance under the table as well as playing with the position of the unit on the base of the tonearm that has the antiskating dial at various angles too. Nothing seems to work.

 

[Hari Iyer]

Hi Hari......Does your TA auto lift at the end of the dead wax work consistently? I have been having issues with it and cannot seem to find a solution to this. Tried changing the magnet distance under the table as well as playing with the position of the unit on the base of the tonearm that has the antiskating dial at various angles too. Nothing seems to work.

Initially it use to consistently autolift for about first 3 months. Then all of a sudden without any warning one fine day it won't autolift. All my efforts to restore this function went waste even though all voltages andcsetting was exactly as per service manual. Anyway that was 3 years ago. Now currently I am using a Rega 330 tonearm and have ditched even the Thorens high compliance tonearm altogether. Since 2021, I now don't have any complaints with my table.