ANTI-SKATING WHAT IT IS … AND WHY YOU NEED IT
Lately we’ve noticed the release of several turntables—some of them otherwise high-end, expensive units—that dispense with the traditional anti-skating feature. Sadly, we’ve also read various reasons why it wasn’t necessary on those turntables, and these reasons typically betray a misunderstanding of why it’s needed in the first place. In fact, anti-skating is needed on virtually all turntables. The requirement for anti-skating is nothing to do with the quality of the tonearm’s construction or the make of the tone arm bearings or whether the arm is straight or curved. It’s all to do with the directions of forces.
The only exceptions to the rule are those turntables which have radically different tone arm geometry. I will return to them.
IT’S ALL TO DO WITH THE DIRECTIONS OF THE FORCES
When the stylus is in the groove of
