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
At best, any compensation is just a rough average of the force that is required to compensate for skating forces, the actual skating force varies greatly due to different operating conditions.  In particular, there is more skating force when the stylus is tracking highly modulated grooves (loud passages).  Some people set anti-skating by playing test records with higher and higher levels of play and then use anti-skating to compensate for distortion appearing in one channel (if the right becomes distorted, increase anti-skating).  The problem with this approach is that it applies too much compensation for more typical playing conditions.

Even though playing a blank groove does not reproduce actual playing conditions, it is used as a rough proxy for methods where you set anti-skating to cause a very slow drift toward the spindle when playing a record near the end of the record.  This method has been endorsed by a number of stylus/cartridge manufacturers who know a thing or two about wear on the stylus.  I like this method because it is easy.  You don't even need a blank record.  Put the needle down in the run-out section of a playing record and watch which way it drifts before it catches the groove.  You can look up Peter Lederman's (Sound Smith) videos on the subject.

As to the persistent issue of what causes the skating force, it is caused by friction of the stylus playing the groove.  The direction of that force pulling on the cantilever is roughly 90 degrees from the line between the two sides of the stylus contacting the groove.  For the most part, that means that the force is pulling along the same direction as the cantilever itself.  If the arm were straight, with no offset angle, the pull will be against the arm pivot.  But, when the cartridge is set at an offset angle, the direction of pull is no longer toward the pivot.  I have a simple way to demonstrate this phenomenon.  Place your elbow on a table and hold your arm straight out and then pull your middle finger straight back.  Your arm will not move because there is no sideways force.  Now cock your wrist toward the right, like the offset angle of a tonearm.  If you pull straight back on the middle finger like before, your arm will swing to the right.  This is precisely what happens with your tonearm.

S-shaped arms are no different from other arms when it comes to skating force because the cantilever on the cartridge is not pointing at the pivot.  That shape was chosen to balance the weight of the arm at the pivot.   
@larryi 
would using something like gruv glide mitigate the issue of the pull towards the spindle due to lower friction? I’ve been using it without anti-skate to get the best possible sound. I’ve done a-b tests of same tracks with definitive enhancement of sound when no skating is present using my 2m bronze cartridge at 1.5g vtf. So maybe it’s something that’s table or cartridge related.
Yes, I would expect that lower friction would also mean lower skating force.  In any event, if it sounds better to you to not use the antiskating mechanism, you then only have to decide whether or not you are concerned with uneven groove and stylus wear.   Records are quite robust, so the issue of record wear might be more academic than a serious concern.  For me, it is enough of an issue that I use anti-skating.  In applying the Peter Lederman approach, with most arms, I end up using less anti-skating than applying the manufacturer's recommendations which are based on down-force setting.
If removing anti skating makes a vinyl playback system sound better then the setup is off somewhere. You can prove this to yourself with any good test record Like the HiFi News one. The anti skate adjust or Bias track has symmetrical test tones on both channels in increasing modulation.
The game is to adjust the anti skate until neither channel distorts at the highest groove velocity. Take the anti skate off and the right channel will start buzzing like mad. Too much anti skate and the left channel will start buzzing like mad. It helps to have continuously variable adjustment. If you do not then you can fine tune by adjusting the tracking force. You can get yourself in the ballpark by just keeping an eye on the cantilever as you lower the stylus into the groove. It should remain straight ahead. If it deviates one way or another you are way off. With no anti skating applied the cantilever deviates to the edge of the record causing misalignment of coils to magnets and taking the suspension out of it's linear region. 
mijostyn
If removing anti skating makes a vinyl playback system sound better then the setup is off somewhere.
That is not a universal truth. Kindly note that the manufacturers of some pivoted arms do not include antiskate on their arms. Of those that do, some recommend against using it.

I've always found properly adjusted antiskate to be useful, btw.