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What is more accurate: magnetic anti-skating, or barrel weight attached a fishline?

I have seen turntables from Project, Music Hall, and a few other brands that still incorporate a small barrel weight attached to short fishline string which is stretched across a hooking loop to set ANTI-SKATING. It seems to be an artifact from the 1960's and 1970's tonearm design. It is also easy to lose or break 

My question is how accurate is that "device" compared to magnetic anti-skating employed by many turntable manufacturers   Thank you

sunnyjim
tooblue
1,882 posts
 
Sunnyjim, please add a third option of no antiskate, hence VPI  and the dressing of their wires. Interested in that result as well. Thanks

zavato's avatar
zavato
1,390 posts
 
Anti-skate is always an approximation. The weighted string method can be quite good, though. The string is fishing line so its unlikely to break, and once on the arm, you're not going to loose it. 


I would not let method of applying anti-skate determine a choice of arms.
john_tracy
341 posts
 
sonnyjim - is that a reference to Robert Carradine's character on the TV series Kung Fu?

salectric
747 posts
 
My experience supports the No Antiskating option.  Each arm where I have tried removing the AS has sounded better than with any amount of AS.  These arms include Triplanar VII, Analog Instruments Siggwan, and Moerch DP-6.  I also used a VPI JMW-10 for a number of years without AS but since it didn't have the option of AS, I am not including it on the list.
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