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Does anyone know what the specs are for the antiskating torque on the radial-arm turntables? Or has anyone else tried to measrue it? I have an RX2 and when I got it out a few weeks ago, I noticed arm looked like it was pulling hard to the outside on the stylus. Now I understand that my stylus’s suspension is toast, but it did get me into trying to quantify the antiskating torque.

For the record, with my tt’s antiskating set at “MMC3-MMC4,” I needed about 0.3 g to balance out the tonearm at 190.5 mm from the pivot. I didn’t try the other settings, but the “5” setting is more torque and the “1-2″ setting is less torque. I measured it with thread and 1.2″x8.5” of (US standard 20#) copy-machine paper, which comes out to 0.5 g. Fold it 10-ways and tear off 0.05 g at a time until it balances. The paper “weight” was hung over the side of the tt (over a pin) with the thread pulling across the spindle. Friction of the thread across the pin was significant, so the best I could do was achieve balance with the tone arm in the middle of its travel. I should also mention that the counterweight was set to 0 so the arm would float (MMC 4 installed with guard down).

I was also able to ascertain that the antiskating torque increased as the tonearm is moved toward the spindle by other means.

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