What is more accurate: magnetic anti-skating, or barrel weight attached a fishline?

Stan, ... even though you might not use the VPI fish line AS device thingy, I recall that you follow Harry's advice by putting a slight twist in the tonearm wire which creates a slight amount of AS force.  My point is that while Harry is not a big proponent of the fish line counter weight AS device, he believes that a tiny bit of counterforce might be helpful.   

As you may recall, I own a hot-rodded 1st generation Classic.  I use a teeny amount of AS, not because I can detect a sound difference.  Rather, I use it to help balance the force on the stylus to maintain even wear.  That said, I have no clue if I am using too much or too little AS force.  Only time will tell when I have my stylus checked for wear.

BIF

bifynne...no twist...just use my ears.....you always use too much and too little simultaneously.  There is no way to properly adjust for a/s.  ...a loud section of the record needs more, soft sections need less.....how much you say?,,,  that depends on where the stylus is on the record...outside, or inside.....also, what is the shape of your stylus...how heavy are you tracking.....see what I mean?   It simply can't be done properly...not even close.....and the force needed is so slight....(and so it goes)

There is an old trick to correctly set anti-skate.Because two (i.e L+R channel) signals out phase with each other will cause a -3db drop in volume when they meet.This is audible.You also need a mono switch on your preamp and your cartridge well aligned. I put my right channel on my cartridge out of phase and put the right speaker back in phase by changing polarity at the input.To find the correct anti-skate position put the preamp into mono.One side is out phase the other in phase.Adjust your anti skate until the signals meet and a volume drop occurs.You have electrically set correct anti-skate.Put preamp back into stereo mode to hear this.

Stefani...no...you can only use your method and have it work only for that particular second of the record....it will change an instant later.

That in practice is not actually the case.I found as most of us have that the last track of a side is the problematic area.Look at Stevenson's alignment method for how far you can take that.Usually a slight increase in anti skate here will deal with this issue.I will grant that it is a get you in the ball park method bottom line.I now adjust by ear anyway.But what it did was to teach me where approximately to set my anti skate so I now can do it relatively quickly.