More on VPI Anti-Skate

I just moved to my new Arizona digs from NJ. I plunked down the stereo (sounded awful) and discovered I lost the Vandersteen owners' manual. I just found it on line and was able to position the speakers properly, and it sounds much better. I have been using the anti-skate on my VPI 10.5 on Superscoutmaster with rim drive and all the other upgrades. I noticed, that the anti-skate mechanism was not functioning peculiarly..it seemed to be sluggish..damped in its travel if you will. I remembered it operating silky smoothe. In the meantime I had added some damping oil in the arm. Much to my satisfaction, it added tremendous layering, tightened up voice so that it was between the 2 speakers rather than spread across the 2 speakers, etc. I noticed however, when I removed the anti-skate to drop some WD-40 at the pivot (which returned it to its silky self) that the sound was even better. I reported on these pages that the sound improved WITH the device, but I discovered that it improved the UNDAMPED arm. With damping, the a/s is a bit of a detriment. I took the oil out and repeated the experiment to see if the now properly lubricated a/s device was a help. Indeed it was, however, when I put the damping back into the arm, I preferred the damped arm without the a/s. As with everything, there are variables.