VPI Anti-Skate Mechanism

About the VPI Anti-Skate Mechanism
Anti-skate is one of the least understood forces acting on a tonearm. Skating force is created by friction between the stylus and the record, causing a force vector in a direction towards the center of the record when the headshell of the tonearm has an offset angle. Putting the stylus down on a flat, groove-less record will cause the arm to move toward the center of the record.

Arms manufacturers have tried to compensate for this force, but that is impossible because the force is constantly changing as the music and velocity change.

VPI has conducted careful listening tests and determined that every tonearm they tried sounded better with its mechanical anti-skating disabled and the tracking force very slightly increased... VPI has a unique solution to anti-skating: the coiled wire of the JMW Memorial Tonearm acts as a spring and pushes the arm back without affecting the sound quality.

If you have an older VPI turntable/tonearm combo that has "silver" junction box, a new "black" junction box would need to be purchased to use the anti-skate upgrade.