Does removing anti-skating really improve sound?

Gentlemen! Reading comprehension time!

Q: Where did I say anyone suggested to tilt the turntable?
A: Nowhere!

What I said was "there's always an audiophile who can think of a way..."
Did some audiophile think of a way? Clearly so.

Do we know the difference between think and do? Jury appears to be out on that one! 

Will we be sure to read more carefully before telling someone how carefully they should read? Let's hope so!

Thank you!

Chakster, probably you shouldn’t disseminate the idea that VTF should equal AS. For two reasons: first, most AS devices are imprecise as to the amount of AS at any particular set point, and second, because many users including me have found that if you can set AS = VTF, you end up with too much AS. Much too much in fact. However I wouldn’t argue that my own findings reveal a universal truth. But read Doug Deacon’s old thread on AS with Triplanar tonearm.

I am a conductor. I stretch out my arm and waive motions in the air to direct my orchestra. For some reason, there exist an unknown force pulling in my left arm in a way that I can’t waive/conduct freely. Therefore the first violin and every instrument on my left didn’t play as fluid as need be.

I am a cantilever. I stretch out my coils, or in the case of MM (magnets), to create waves of energy to signal my phono preamp. For some reason, there exist an anti-skating force pushing against my left coil in a way that I can’t send my left signal freely......

Cartridge and Tonearm designers are painfully aware of the nature of skating force. It has everything to do with the vector force created by friction, head shell angle, tangential force, etc. The source of skating with single pivot arm is complex and at times, unpredictable. Inventive minds spend countless hours trying to counter this phenomenon with various degrees of success. Some even chooses to ignore it at one time or another. Famous designers such as Peter Ledermann, Jonathan Carr, Harry Weisfeld, etc., design their products upon their individual set of priorities and philosophies. However little, there exist sets of compromises necessary in each due to laws of physics.

I am the the cantilever. Since the inception of phono playback system the jury is still out on the best way to counter skating force; how much anti-skate or not at all. If one should look from the cantilever’s perspective, friction and geometry pulls me towards the spindle while anti-skating mechanisms are bending me out from behind, through tonearm, to counter this force. These opposing forces are placing heavier pressure on my left side (looking out from tonearm). The more anti-skate force applied, the more pressure I receive left. So taking analogy from my opening paragraph, my left and right hands are receiving unequal forces.

What if we disregard anti-skating and let the cantilever/tonearm free itself from external counter forces. Wouldn’t we be giving a chance for the cantilever/coils to stay centered and perhaps to do a better job?

Please take this as a disclaimer. I’m far from being knowledgeable with all things “turntable”. I have neither the engineering background nor the experiences of most on this forum. Having tried both settings in numerous occasions, with or without anti-skate force, it is my personal preference to go without.

Humbly Yours

Tube be or not Tube be..... that’s the convergence, not the question.

@lewm

Chakster, probably you shouldn’t disseminate the idea that VTF should equal AS. .... But read Doug Deacon’s old thread on AS with Triplanar tonearm.

This is not my full post, as i said there is a special Test Record to set up anti-skating correctly by actually hearing what the anti-skating can do with the signal coming from that test record. I also said that Van den Hul recommended to use lower anti-skating for the most advanced stylus profiles.

I can add that some High-Compliance cartridges with very low tracking force (1.25g) can jump all over record surface without anti-skating.

A Tri-Panar tonearm has fluid-damper full of silicone, many conventinal tonearms does not have this feature and result is different.

A well known retipper also claimed that he can see the effect of incorrect anti-skating on one side of the diamond under micro scope. 

The TP does have that damping trough near the pivot. Why would that effect the skating force?