With no anti-skate, the cartridge will get natrually pulled towards the center of the record due to the forces involved in a spinning object. Put a blank sided record on, turn off the anti-skate and place the arm down on it (get ready to catch it quickly) - you'll see that it'll fly towards the center of the record.
The anti-skate applies a force in the opposite direction so that the forces on either side of the record groove are equal. Put the correct amount of anti-skate on the arm and then place it back onto the spinning blank record - you'll see that the arm no longer flies towards the center. Actually, it probably flies outwards slightly, but remember the forces on the stylus are different in the groove than on a blank sided record. Best way to set anti-skate is to set it to match you playing weight, and then play some music, listening out for any distortion on either left or right channels - especially on peaks. Adjust anti-skate until you remove this distortion. > > As I understand it, the anti-skating dial is in place in order to compensate > for any overt pull towards the inside or outside, but I've never really > figured that out, except as a reaction to a problem, and to be honest I > don't really understand how a dial works in that context, since a varying > elipse always goes both inside and out by the same degree - or it should > anyway. >
