Anti-Skate Weight …. Better sound without it?

This poor thing has been beaten into puree.

billstevenson with the latest technical tools available, summed it up...what do you hear?

Particularly on lower tier gear- if it sounds "right" go with it.

Obsess/fuss is for Uber $$ setups.

lewm, bill

I’m saying the elimination of anti-skate, in this current setup, might be ’removing’ distortions caused by other imperfections,

IOW, yes, in this situation, eliminating it is helping, but IF it’s removal helps, something else is wrong!

bill

Anti-Skate lets me move the imaging of those 3 guitarists while listening, proving both it’s need and it’s worth, and the improvement to imaging of ANY and ALL content is thus improved. That is far more important than the amount of distortion that may be measurable or not

VPI arms started without providing for anti-skate, pure negligence IMO, then later added a gizmo to ’add it’.

https://houseofstereo.com/products/vpi-industries-anti-skate-mechanism?variant=45117216063637&utm_term=&utm_campaign=**LP+pMax&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=4188007760&hsa_cam=19959714947&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21818316948&gbraid=0AAAAACNju70NNIaoFgK9ZRdStGZ6Pu6Jk&gclid=Cj0KCQjwo63HBhCKARIsAHOHV_WCr4_TZBCs_MaGYvZ1rqNbmieWIA1pelNNEcD_aQ22YdQAVGdKJZcaAjtmEALw_wcB

here's my Russian Arm, with original Litz wire soldered in a Junction Box, wonderful, until hum developed because the silk insulation became worn by a design flaw (since fixed). Unbelievably, that's 5 wires, each 37 strands

Here it is rewired by VAS, to a mini-din connector and a VPI Junction Box

I could no longer precisely control anti-skate, like OP, I removed the weight and, by blank side LP observed 'better' without the weight. I discovered, the thicker insulation on the wire was causing 'pushback' but not in a precise, measurable controllable way, it varied as the arm pivoted.

Here is the JVC Victor 7082 arm, with very delicate and precise anti-skate dial on top.

The rear arm is Acos Lustre GST-801, recommended here, it uniquely uses magnetics for tracking force and anti-skate, precisely adjustable, BUT, use tools, the dials are close, but never precisely accurate

Elliot why not hard wire to the junction box? You don’t need the DIN connection, as I’m sure you know.

And to continue to beat this very dead horse, I do not say AS is not needed in the OP’s case. I say his observation suggests there are other sources of an AS force, such as bearing friction and stiff wires that may be supplying sufficient AS force such that when he adds AS via his tonearm’s AS adjuster, the total AS force becomes excessive which causes distortion in the L channel, as he reports. Too much AS would be expected to cause L channel distortion. Too little or no AS causes R channel distortion. It all fits. His choice to set VTF at 1.0g means he needs very little AS, as well. Meantime the OP is enjoying a stiff drink somewhere.