Ancient AR Turntable with NO anti skate

Norman, With all due respect to the venerable AR turntable, could it be that bearing friction is causing some AS force?  (I owned one myself, of course, back in the 70s when I first got interested in "hi-fi".)  My Triplanar sounds obviously distorted in the R channel when I cut AS to zero.  On the other hand, no less an authority than Doug Deacon used to recommend removing the entire AS device from the Triplanar and going without it.  (Although I seem to recall that he did also talk about applying some minimal AS by using small rubber grommets in lieu of the Triplanar AS weight.) Why two different end-users of the same tonearm would come to different conclusions, I do not know. I do set my AS at minimum on all my tonearms; then I listen for L vs R distortions.  I also check the cantilever after the first 50 hours to see whether it is biasing to one side, in which case I add or subtract a tad of AS, as appropriate.  The net result is probably not far from where Almarg ends up, or if anything I use even less AS.

This discussion comes and goes on every analog forum.  Stringreen has not changed his opinion, which is his right.  But I have to agree with cleeds; the skating force does exist for every pivoted tonearm, whether we like it or not.  I don't have any idea why some tonearms seem to sound fine with no AS applied and others do not.  In some cases (VPI) the routing of the tonearm wires may in and of itself provide some degree of AS force such that lack of a formal mechanism for AS is not missed. At least that is a popular hypothesis.  Many cartridge makers and repairers have also remarked that they see styli with irregular wear patterns, where the cartridge was used for a prolonged period of time in a tonearm without AS.  The skating force is like global warming; it's there all the time, whether one chooses to compensate for it or not.