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Does removing anti-skating really improve sound?

I know this topic has been discussed here before, but wanted to see if others have the same experience as me. After removing the fishing line dangling weight from my tonearm I’m convinced my bass and soundstage has opened up. I doing very careful listening with headphones and don’t hear any distortion or treble harshness. So why use anti-skating at all? Even during deep bass/ loud passages no skipping of tracks. Any thoughts from all the analog gurus out there?
tubelvr1
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
I've never cared for the thread-and-weight. On tonearms with magnetic antiskate (like my Denon 307) I will set it by dial to correspond with the VTF. Though I doubt I can hear a difference with it on or off!
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
On the two Fidelity Research tonearms I own (FR29 and FR54) neither has any provision for antiskate. So Ikeda-san didn't consider it important for these two models! They are both heavy arms well-suited for low-compliance MC's.
tubelvr1 OP
13 posts
 
I have a mmf 2.2 turntable..so nothing very fancy. It has the stock tonearm. So don’t know if that’s why I’m getting better sound without the skating.
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lewm
12,535 posts
 
The FR64S, 66S, and 64fx all do have an anti-skate device built in. So maybe Ikeda was pinching pennies when he designed the lesser models you mention.

 I kind of disagree that the tonearm and the cartridge make a “big” difference with respect to the skating force. The skating force is generated by the friction of the stylus in the groove. So I would say the stylus tip shape may make a difference to the amount of skating force. However, if the bearIng  is very low in friction, and if the headshell offset angle is designed for any one of the three popular alignment algorithms, then the tonearm really shouldn’t make that much difference. The reason it could make a difference is if the friction at the bearing is on the high side. Thus some of the VPI tonearms that lack an anti-skate device generate an anti-skating force by virtue of the drag caused by the tonearm wires where they exit near the pivot point of the tonearm. I suppose that is true for some other tonearms that just happened to have a lot of bearing friction. I guess I agree then that if you have one of those tonearms which has friction at the pivot due either to bearings or wire drag, either of those factors could lessen the need for a separate anti-skate device. I suppose also VTF can make a difference. 

Maybe we’ll find out that the OP is using one of those VPI tonearms, and then we won’t wonder why he does not seem to need a separate anti-skate device. Or maybe we’ll never find out what tonearm and cartridge he uses.
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