VPI Scout and Scoutmaster owners.

Remove the arm. Looking in there, I don't see how it could drain to the trough. It needs to be at least 2/3 full to make any difference. I fill it till it touches the base, and adjust from there. You have to look for oil slick at the bottom of the arm to know if you're effectively dampening.
My level at this point is one drop above where it barely touches. I started out really high and seemed to dull the sound a bit too much. I'm still playing with it. My cartridge is a Shelter 501.

I'm using the antiskate. I find it to be a slight improvement worth the effort. Seems to clean up very slight distortion and maybe a bit better dynamics. I've gone back and forth, changed settings, on/off.
Trust your ears is my advice. And if you hear no difference, don't use it because general thought is better to have less than too much.
At the end of the day, though, this is a fantastic upgrade taken as a whole. My analog has never sounded this good and I can't stand seedees anymore.

Don't believe everything you hear. While I respect HW's informed opinion on antiskate, the very statement you quote makes no sense. Why would he advise people to twist the wire in the first place if no antiskate was better? Maybe antiskate is less critical on a unipivot arm? But then why, if he didn't find any advantage to it, did VPI develop an antiskate for the arm? I don't believe he would state that twisting the wires does the same thing his antiskate device that he's now selling. I also don't think he'd sell something just because people thought they needed it. It would really cast a negative light on VPI, a company that fosters a healthy upgrade path for it's customers.
Simple fact is there was no reliable way of setting antiskate by twisting wires, needed or not. While you can get really satisfactory sound twisting or not, 1 twist or 3, there was no set method and everyone did what they thought was best. Lots of posts on that. The new method is much more reliable and consistant.
Maybe they did do it to sell more tonearms. Antiskate has to my knowledge always been an issue long before HW came around. It only helps to at least have the capability to adjust it. I have heard of statements from another person in VPI who said the antiskate was effective.
It does make a very subtle improvement to my ears, and it is a much more accurate method of controlling the antiskate. I assume more people will eventually reach their own conclusions after they compare themselves. Most of the post I've read are of people not using it simply because of what they read. That's really the reason for my long rant.

Twisting the wires is also a mechanical solution to antiskating, isn't it?
I'd be more interested in hearing from HW himself. I'm not aware of any comments from him since coming out with the device. We can only postulate what he's thinking now. I would respect him even more whatever his reponse was. If he really did just do it just to meet demand and admitted as much, then I applaud his honesty. But if he's since found a better way than twisting wires or if he's found it to be an improvement to any degree, then I'd applaud his humility to admit his previous stance has changed. Either way, it's a good debate.
I don't think you can thread the needle by calling the twisted wires non mechanical though. It's almost starting to sound like a political debate to save face.

The difference I hear is very subtle. Without antiskate, the left channel sounds more dynamic, a little more alive, than the right. With the antiskate at the highest setting, the left channel is a little less dynamic, and balance seems to shift slightly to the right. There's more of a silkiness overall and less graininess, but also less lively too. I now have it set around the middle, and that seems to bring back the liveliness and clean it up some. I haven't settled on anything yet, but I do think it's worth messing with. Either way, it's a great table. We're splitting hairs here.
I've had the Scout and now Scoutmaster for a couple years now. I tried twisting wires before this and ended up leaving them untwisted. I think if you can hear the difference twisting, then you should hear a difference with this too.
Didn't want or mean to hijack the thread. I know the antiskate controversy has been discussed extensively before and don't want to go there.

That's the upgrade to get in my opinion. If your cartridge isn't low compliance, get the wire upgrade. If it is, maybe consider just the wand. The damping helps too but my cartridge is low compliance so it did make some impact as expected.
No controversy on the wire upgrade though. I got my arm in stages because VPI was delayed in shipping. I had the arm wand for over a month before the antiskate mechanism came. I had the antiskate around 3 weeks before the base with the damping came in. I have a pretty well developed opinion of the value of the parts of this upgrade. While the wand may have affected it more than I realize, there's no question the wire was the biggest factor. Resolution, soundstage all immediately better. The $200 for the rewire to me is the one to do if nothing else.