Does removing anti-skating really improve sound?

I use a linear tracker (Kuzma Airline) and the fine horizontal balancing set up involves bouncing the arm while it is in its 'up' cueing position at different points along the face of a record to see which way the arm drifts-- the objective, if I recall the instructions correctly (and I re-read them when I do this setting) is drift slightly outward at rim of record, neutral at center of record and slightly inward an inner grooves. This is supposed to be more exact than any level or measure and in fact that has proven true. So the arm is level, but....
I haven't used a conventional arm for a dozen years but am adding one- it's en route to me now, and it has an anti-skate device. So, I will be doing his setting for the first time in a long time.
Riddle me this- using a test record, are you checking for anti-skate at more than one place on the record? If not, why not? (Not a trick question and no hidden agenda other than my curiosity and fairly long lack of hands on experience in messing with an anti-skate setting). 

mijostyn

Fortunately distortion is easy to hear because it is so dissonant, sort of like looking for an elephant in a garage full of cars.

That is completely mistaken. Some distortion is not all "dissonant," but just the opposite: it’s euphonic.

I am an MD and can guarantee you I know a lot more about the brain than you do. You are not your brain.

Beware the audio guru.

mijostyn,

There is a good reason for not setting anti-skating to work best for the loudest passage.  According to a number of experts, including Peter Lederman of SoundSmith, skating force varies with groove modulation, with more force at higher modulation levels.  I don't know why this would be the case, but, that is what he claims.  If you set anti-skating to be optimal for the most extreme passages, it would be too high for the vast majority of time the record plays well below that level.  Because I don't need high anti-skating to reduce distortion when playing regular records (only test records distort grossly), I go with slightly less than what is indicated by playing test records at the highest modulation level.  Lederman's observations and recommendations are base on seeing observing wear on cartridges (he is a cartridge manufacturer and rebuilder). 

I know there are all sorts of methodologies, and all of them are, at best, rough corrections, so I don't sweat it that much.

Larry, yes when the groove velocity (modulation) increases friction of the stylus in the groove increases increasing the skating force. Groove velocity also decreases as you move to the center of the record. Now, do you set your tracking force to track light passages allowing mistracking on the heavy ones chewing up the grooves? I think not. Tracking force  is set heavy enough to make it through the tough passages. Same thing goes for antiskating. You are adjusting it to minimize tracking distortion. Cleeds, please excuse me. I should have clarified myself better. I meant tracking distortion. Even order harmonic distortion can be euphoric. Pass intentionally designs a little of it into his amps. Other distortion not so, at least over 1%. Usually the bias adjustment bands are at mid disc. I guess the thought is to get an average velocity.
There are many variables you just can not account for. But, the goal is to minimize miss tracking. Any pivoted arm cartridge combination with properly adjusted anti skate is going to easily out track one without. Get a test record and prove it to yourself. If the stylus leans a little bit to one side or another makes no sonic difference. This is another reason so many of us don’t switch to a tangential tracker. There is no sonic improvement to justify the added complexity. 
Larry, Peter has no idea what the cartridges he is reduilding have been through. The owners usually have no idea.
The primary determinants of the skating force in a given arm cartridge combination are VTF and groove velocity. Modulation is a minor contributor. The geometry of the best anti skating devices is such that the counter force applied decreases automatically at the arm moves towards the center of the record compensating for the decreasing groove velocity.

Since kinetic friction (the force of friction between two moving objects) is only a function of the normal force (the force vector that is perpendicular to the contact surfaces of the two objects) and the coeffecient of friction (mu) between the two objects, stylus velocity should in fact have no effect on the magnitude of the skating force.  So, for a cartridge and an LP, only the vinyl groove, the shape of the stylus, and the VTF should count.  The reason the skating force does change in magnitude across the surface of the LP is due to the ever changing tracking angle error and to groove tortuosity, which forces the stylus to accelerate around the tiny curves in order to hold the speed of its travel constant.  These mini-accelerations of the stylus tip, which are happening at all points, cause mini-changes in the force exerted by the tonearm to hold the cartridge in place and corresponding changes in the skating force. That's the way I see it, given that velocity is not a factor in the formula for kinetic friction.