Tonearms without anti-skate, damage to records?

@dover   Please explain why you think the skating force does not change linearly as the record is played.  Surely it is just a question of geometry?

I never said that.

On a linear tracking arm there is no skating force.

On a pivoted arm it varies across the record.

Some Rega arms rely on magnetism for anti skate, therefore no adjustment. Are you certain that your arm does not have a similar anti skate configuration?

This is how the unbranded (actually Rega) arm works on the Avid Ingenium plug and play.

If a turntable/tonearm has the means to set or adjust anti skate, then I’m using it.

What’s all this about the weight swinging back and forth? Mine barely moves at all when a record is playing, no distractions, I don’t get it.

I’m in the  “I hate antiskate camp!” I mean no disrespect to any who believe in it and use it. More power to you.  For me, I’ve never heard a difference, seen a difference and have always had problems with skipping, miscuing etc. I use the bare minimum if it’s availability on a tonearm. That’s my two cents. 

No one appears to have mentioned the sound quality with regards to AS. I find that the music sounds less restrained with no AS applied to my 12" Jelco 850 tonearms.

@clearthinker , While the Aeroarm is the best air bearing arm design there are issues with such a short arm. VTA changes more dramatically with elevation and the vertical effective mass can not be too low or you will start getting problems in the audio range. The horizontal effective mass is still too high. To see the problem best watch your cantilever with an eccentric record. The cantilever will lead the tonearm.  If you tap your turntable on the side you will see the cantilever wobble at a very low frequency. If you are determined to have tangential tracking get a Schroder LT. I promise you will never look back.

@dover, Not even Eminent Technology can defeat the laws of physics. Your statement about the lateral forces being less than a properly set up pivoted arm are false, almost comically so. That is like saying it is easier to push a pickup truck than it is a shopping cart. If you really want a very cool tangential tracker get a Reed 5T.