Are you using anti-skating or not


On my side i always got better result without using anti-skating.

And you?
dobermann
And this subject goes on and on. I tried eliminating all AS but found that just a very small about was necessary for proper tracking and balance.
It depends on the table and arm (and cartridge, too, probably).
I have a Well-Tempered table and arm with a Van den Hul Frog cartridge and don't use any anti-skating force.
I've, also, had the table set-up by two different dealers who didn't use any on it.
Both channels seem to track equally well and, after a few years of heavy use, I had my cartridge examined under a microscope by a dealer to see in what shape the stylus was. He said it showed relatively little wear--and no uneven wear--due, he went on, to my very careful set-up.
He said that is common practice for that table/arm and doesn't use any on them, either.

This is a classic YMMV situation.
Dear Dobermann: I'm not using it.

This does not means that the skating force does not exists in any ofsett angle tonearm because certainly exist.

Why several people choose to work with out use the anti-skate tonearm device ( the ones that have it )?, well we all already read it: because we like it better with out AS, so are we wrong?: IMHO and from the point of view that we can't hear any real quality improvement through the AS tonearm device I think we are not but from a scientist point of view yes we are wrong: we need the AS, we need to compensate/even for that skating force.

Subject is that the AS concept is very dificult to " handle/implement " due too many " imperfections " on the analog " stage " specially on the record it self where each track recording is totally different in the same record not only because some tracks are near the outer place of the record ( with changes in the skating force ) and other at the inner place but because in the same track exist different recording velocities ( that affects the AS need it ) ( there are many other factors that directly or inderectly affect the AS concept ).
All those different factors makes the AS subject very complex to resolve in absolute terms.

So maybe we like it with out AS because no one of us have the " perfect " AS tonearm device that could help to hear a real improvement ( maybe even with it we can't hear an improvement, I can't say for sure. ), that is: that almost all the AS tonearm devices are not the one that " we " need about, we have to wait that in the time to come appear the right AS tonearm control on ofsett angle tonearms, till this happen we have to care in deep on the " ideal " cero tolerance tonearm/cartridge/TT set-up.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Dan ed what is your point of lowering your VTF? I use some AS using the string and weight method so I have no idea how much, it's in about the middle, I have had no tracking problems and I believe I'm perfectly aligned - guess I should try without to see what all the fuss is about...