Anti-skating- test records vs. ears

There is no real answer as to how to adjust anti skate...there are so many variables to consider...how loud the passage is, where in the record do you measure it, stylus profile, et al.....therefore the best that can be hoped for is an average setting....which means at any point, there is too much or too little. In any event, the outward pull of a/s acts as a damping factor to that side of the stylus. Mosin....I wonder if you increased the vtf by a bit, if you would come up with the same results. I always start my analysis of my setup with the VTF at the high range of the manufacturers suggestions. Listening is the best arbiter.

Stringreen said : "...I really don't care of the stylus wears funny - although I doubt that it does..."

Accelerated asymmetric wear on stylii due to either excessive or inadequate anti-skate is a documented fact.
Even if this were not true, many have taken their worn cartridges to specialists who've examined them under microscopes and commented to the effect that the styli were asymmetrically worn out. So if you didn't believe that skating exists it doesn't get any more graphic than this? Studies also indicate that increasing VTF accelerates asymmetric wear.

By implication, this means that the media will be similarly worn. With a £250 MM this may not be the end of the world. With expensive MCs I'd personally be concerned. If someone wishes to zero out A/S with their own MCs then that is entirely their choice and they should be allowed to go in peace.

I'm also concerned at the debating position of those who relegate skating force to an almost inconsequential level, insisting that everyone "do the same - or else!"???
True, cartridges vary in their response to this force (a Music Maker 3 is superb at tracking the HFN/RR tracking tests at as little as 1.55g with fairly random settings of A/S, unsurprisingly, since Len Gregory was responsible for both) but that doesn't mean that unilateral wear isn't occurring.
On balance, the average MC is generically less capable. This will not be an issue unless you get A/S wrong, but it won't make them "Test Disc Champions" and neither should it because the objective is to BALANCE the distortion at your "normal" VTF not to overcome it with brute force.

...I should have amplified this to read, "THOSE WHO USED ZERO ANTI-SKATE and took the carts to specialists for examination/replacement found they suffered pronounced asymmetric wear."

Moonglum.....My advice is for you to listen with and without a/s and decide which you like the best. As for me....I have done this test many times and invariably like the no a/s best. If my car needs new tires, I get them...if my cartridge needs a new stylus, I'll probably get a new cartridge. Its the cost of doing business. How can i take your pronouncement that these tests are valid... conducted scientifically, and meaningful.... If MY cartridge sounds better to me without a/s, that means that for some reason it is correct.

Could it be that Scotch skews ones hearing?