Ditching anti-skate?

I am currently using a Basis 2001 with Graham 2.2 and a VPI Classic with 10.5 arm and don't use anti skating on either. It is impossible to get the right amount across the whole record and I find it sounds fine without it.

Yes,if an anti-skate mechanism does not do a good job it might sound better without and you might be saving some record wear.But Klaus Rampelmann in his paper points out that a stylus will not be properly centered in a groove technically until you correct for the anti-skate.Klaus states "Uncompensated skating force results
actually in the stylus mistracking the outer groove wall which results in distortion in the right channel." He goes on to say that you reduce record wear using anti-skate because trackability is improved by 20-25%.This would require an equivalent 50% increase in tracking force,thus affecting the sound generally and the record wear etc.From personal experience I know that VTF and anti-skate are inter-twined and that if you change one you have to change the other in a set-up and I think that if the anti-skate changes so audibly across a record by rights you would be forced to be changing VTF all the time as well.Now here is where the argument about the audible "badness" of using anti-skate might collapse.Klaus considered the arguments and was moved to write his excellent paper,I can only suggest you check it out in the members section at The Vinyl Engine.

I gave it the boot. SOTA Star and Akito 2B w/ Denon 103. Works fine without it.

i have to ask this: if it sounds better without anti-skate, then isn't that better? no matter the technical details. pragmatics apply.

It seems to me that it is necessary to always adjust VTF in relation to anti-skate firstly.Now a lot of people here seem to be the "set and forget" types.I found that I wanted to investigate anti-skate more after reaching the point a lot of you are at now,where the use of it was worse sounding than none at all.So aided by the use of the "on-the-fly" TWL weight mod and the ability of my "tweaked" Rega arm to be "voiced" with the plinth by adjusting the fixing nut tension (tonearm also bearing),I discovered the glories of correct anti-skate and weight for each single record I play.The VTA set correctly as well.Anti-Skate set right,is the correct parameter to adjust for everything to snap into focus.Pragmatically speaking, this is the route I had to go and I will not go back now,it is very good.Some of you may well be limited by how much and finely you can adjust your tonearm.It took me a lot of iteration to discover anti-skate.I can state that categorically that it is worse without correct anti-skate all other things being equal.