What is more accurate: magnetic anti-skating, or barrel weight attached a fishline?

In a conversation I had with Tri Mai of Triplanar he pointed out that there is no industry standard for how much anti-skate to apply.

Further, it does appear that the amount of skating force is dependent on the geometry as well as the shape of the stylus tip.

I have a Triplanar and can confirm that only a small amount of anti-skate is needed. I usually use a single very small rubber O-ring on the anti-skate arm.

Something that has occurred to me over the years is that the position of the arm on the LP is an issue! You have the maximum skating forces at the beginning and end of the LP; at two places in the middle the cartridge should be perfectly aligned and so no skating force in those two locations.

As we all know, linear tracking arms generate no skating forces if properly set up.

That suggests that in the middle of the LP the skating forces would be opposite of what they are at the beginning and end. This would make all anti-skate systems erroneous.... Since the end of the LP is the most problematic area that is where I hope that my anti-skate setting is correct. At any rate, I've yet to find any LP that can cause distortion or mistracking of the cartridge at any point, so it must be all good, right?

Dear Ralph (Atma-sphere), I beg to differ slightly with your analysis. For a typical pivoted tonearm that is mounted such that the stylus overhangs the spindle and the headshell has an offset angle, there will always be some skating force, even at the two null points on the surface of the LP, because at the null points, the headshell offset angle per se will still be a cause of some skating force. Although the cantilever/stylus is, at those two points, tangent to the groove, the tonearm itself is not, due to the headshell offset.

So you're saying that despite being perfectly tangential, skating forces still exist? IOW that they are generated by the arm and not the geometry of the stylus in the groove?

Hold your left arm out in front of you (horizontally) with your palm facing toward the right.
• Bend your wrist so your fingers point further to the right, so it resembles the headshell/cartridge offset.
• Have someone tug on your fingertip in a direction parallel to your bent hand.
This is our null point case. Your hand will move to the right (skating force).

So, even at the null point, there's some skating force.

Thanks!