Ditching anti-skate?

I have a Pro-Ject 9.1 and I removed the anti-skate just experimenting around a bit. There were some good/bad trade-offs.

The sound did become fuller, more airy and open, and yes I did notice more bass. But there was less focus in the sound image - the instruments bled into each other more and they weren't as definitively located in the sound image. In the end, I went back to the anti-skate, probably because it is the sound presentation I have grown used to.

Also Afc, how are you liking your Clearaudio? I notice you have an EAR 868, which is what I'm using and I've been thinking about upgrading my TT to a Clearaudio Innovation. Do you find that they play nice together?

I've ditched anti-skate a while back and am enjoying the improved sound. It just has a more real and less "forced" sound without it.

This is from a recent technical paper at Vinyl Engine."From discussions on web forums it becomes evident that some people think that skating force is zero when the tracking error is equal to zero, as it is the case in the
null points. This is true only for linear tracking arms, for pivoted arms this simply not correct. As long as the line connecting the stylus tip to the arm pivot is not
tangential to the groove at the contact point, which is always the case for pivoted arms, a skating force is generated. For that very reason tangential pivoted arms like the Garrard Zero and the Thales still have anti-skating mechanisms."
The poster wrote a quite detailed technical paper about this and I have no reason to disbelieve him.

Gradys, I like the Clearaudio. I can't comment on how it pairs with the 868, since this is the first TT I've had in over 25 years. But it is nicely made, and once you get past Germans trying to write instructions in English (there were some very odd things in the set up manual- the "there should now be no air in the bearing"- really threw me for a loop), the set up isn't as bad as advertised for Clearaudio rigs of the past. Very solidly built. The Innovation line is a big step up from what I have, and the 868 allows you the option of your choice of MM or MC. I think it would sound pretty sharp.

Stefan, I don't think the distributor was debating that there is some skating force. His contention was that anti-skate doesn't do much as far as letting the stylus sit properly in the groove and contributes to wobble. I do know that on my TT, the anti-skate was causing an issue. If you raise the tonearm with the arm riser, and it pivots back towards the periphery of the record, then there's clearly too much anti-skate force being applied, and I was using the absolute minimum the rig would allow.

Another interesting point he made was that tracking force guidelines- the standard 2.2-2.6 grams- is an absolute minimum. He stated that a tracking force of 3 grams is minimum for the cartridge I have (which is based on the Denon DL-103), and that something closer to 4-4.5 grams is optimal. Something about that if manufacturers used the latter numbers as the standard, they were getting too many calls about damaged cantilevers and styli. Just more food for thought.....