XV-1S and Antiskate

I agree with Doug that the grooveless LP is useless for setting anti-skate, but apart from that, lets admit that skating force is a result of the offset angle of the headshell on a pivoted tonearm plus the frictional forces generated as a stylus traces a groove. Ergo, no combination of cartridge and pivoted tonearm cum offset headshell is exempt from skating force, no matter how wonderful or expensive the cartridge and tonearm may be. So the choice not to use any anti-skating is simply a choice based on how you like your sound; it is not an indication that skating force is absent.

Doug, How is anti-skating equivalent to a gain block? I think Nick Dolshi must be referring to active devices in the signal path that add gain. So....?

Doug, Thanks for the explanation, but by that loose definition, what is NOT a gain block? Only straight wire, most likely. But then, wire also affects sound. In the parlance I am used to, the term "gain block" would be interchangeable with "gain stage" and nothing else. Anyway, as the late great Gilda Radner once said (as Emily Latella on SNL), "Never mind".

In my system, with both the Triplanar and a Dynavector DV505 tonearms and any of my many MC and MM cartridges, no AS results in a R channel bias and some low level distortions that are cured by a minimal amount of AS. I start with zero and add teeny amounts until the problem is cured. I have you and others to thank for the concept that a minimum amount is best, but I cannot get away with none, so far.