Turntables with anti-skating

 

— the anti-skating system pulls the tonearm away from the centre of the record when the turntable is in operation. Without this, the stylus would push harder on the inside of the groove than on the outside, resulting in uneven record wear and unbalanced sound. Anti-skating is provided in most modern players. It is absent in some low-cost "turntables" and, conversely, top models — in the first case to reduce the cost, in the second this function is usually replaced by various tricks of the manufacturer. Also, anti-skating is not required for a tangential arm (see the relevant paragraph).