The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The groove shapes on both Edison DDs and Pathé sapphire discs are very shallow - much moreso than with lateral grooves. Which will allow the stylus to skip grooves if there is too much tonearm bearing friction or too much lateral skating force. The best results come when you have a modern tonearm with the antiskate adjustment feature. Older tonearms made before about 1965 don't have this feature. I have no problem playing DDs and Pathés on a Dual 1218 with a Stanton 681 with 0.7 mil conical stylus tracking at 1.5 grams with the antiskate compensation properly adjusted. Stylus shape is not important as long as it is small enough to ride directly on the bottom of the groove. With a modern cartridge tracking at 2 grams or less, record wear on a DD or Pathé will be negligible with any modern stylus shape.

Greg, good thought about the anti-skate. Although I don't have it on my Lenco, it does well on Edisons. Pathés, however can give problems, especially if they are warped or off center. I'm thinking about adding an anti-skate similar to those used on some PE turntables back in the '60s. It was a cable and weight rig which, though cumbersome and easy to knock out of adjustment, actually worked.

Jim