Ignoring, or Denying the importance of Anti-Skate is a pet peeve of mine.
VPI being historically guilty IMO. and over many years people quote them as a trusted source.
No doubt, getting Anti-Skate right is the hardest part of tonearm calibration.
I just experienced an anti-skate issue on a different tonearm related to Tonearm wiring 'Pushback' similar to what VPI advocates with their 'twist of wire' 'pushback' anti-skate solution.
The problem is, 'twisted/stiff wire pushback' cannot be calibrated, or made consistent throughout the arc.
To be careful, and as exact as possible, then to rely on this inconsistent solution is unacceptable to me.
My long arm came with very tiny very flexible litz wires that had no pushback as the arm pivoted. A dangling string like SME for anti-skate, worked well for several years.
Each silk covered wire had 37 strands, impossibly thin.
The silk wore off, hum developed, VAS rewired the arm and put a VPI mini-din connector and VPI junction box.
They rounded the bottom edge of the hole the wire passed thru (original design flaw since modified), the wire is similar to VPI wire, and a protective sleeve thru the hole
I can no longer set the anti-skate with the dangling weight, because the stiffer wire, even without a twist, pushes back. How much? I don't know. Consistent thru the arc? Nope.
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here's the Anti-Skate Mechanism that was developed years later for older models
https://www.vpidirect.com/products/anti-skate-mechanism
If you ever had an SME arm with the dangling weight, you appreciate their solution.
