2. analog
  3. 147435-118591

Does removing anti-skating really improve sound?

I know this topic has been discussed here before, but wanted to see if others have the same experience as me. After removing the fishing line dangling weight from my tonearm I’m convinced my bass and soundstage has opened up. I doing very careful listening with headphones and don’t hear any distortion or treble harshness. So why use anti-skating at all? Even during deep bass/ loud passages no skipping of tracks. Any thoughts from all the analog gurus out there?
tubelvr1

Showing 4 responses by tubelvr1

tubelvr1 OP
13 posts
 
I have a mmf 2.2 turntable..so nothing very fancy. It has the stock tonearm. So don’t know if that’s why I’m getting better sound without the skating.
tubelvr1 OP
13 posts
 
Thank you millercarbon for the detailed explanation. Does anti skating affect loudness of a channel also? I believe after removing the weight my right channel sounds equal to the left whereas before it was slightly louder.
tubelvr1 OP
13 posts
 
My final question to all the analog gurus...does an S tonearm require less or no antiskating? Is it an inherently better design?
tubelvr1 OP
13 posts
 
@larryi 
would using something like gruv glide mitigate the issue of the pull towards the spindle due to lower friction? I’ve been using it without anti-skate to get the best possible sound. I’ve done a-b tests of same tracks with definitive enhancement of sound when no skating is present using my 2m bronze cartridge at 1.5g vtf. So maybe it’s something that’s table or cartridge related.
More to discover