a couple of years ago I replaced a cart as it was a bit long in the tooth .
Upon examining the sylus tip i could see obvious wear and mis shaping on the left channel side , ie right hand side when viewed from the front of the arm and deck .
The right channel side was fine.
This cart had run for approx 2ooo hours ,give or take 300 .
It had allways had anti bias set matching the downforce or slightly less.
This must indicate that the cart was being unfairly pushed outwards during its life.
I have run my current cart for around 600 to 700 hours with no bias. When placed on a smooth disc it does pull inwards , but seems fine or if not better when tracking in the grooves ! The left / right balance is also spot on when listening too .
There is also no sign of undue wear on either side of the tip.
I recently read a review of a high end turntable and arm combo ( Klimo Tafelrund turntable . . with LANCELLOTTO ARM ) in hi fi world. This arm has no bias compensation facility at all .
It seems they agree with me ????
this is a £17,000 set up so you would hope some research has been done to come to this conclusion !

I know this is a subject which won't interest many but has anyone else give it any thought ???

I honestly do not think it's as simple or yes or no. I have been using the denon 110 for a while now, and am currently on my third. This one needs around 05 on the Rega anti skate to sound balanced. The last one, (the one you used) did not need any, the first one was around 1. I think it comes down to listeniung to each cart and setting the deck for that one, rather than following generic formula.

Also depends on the arm. the worst thing about the whole anti-skate issue is that strictly speaking the anti-skate you apply should vary as the record is played. The force applied toward the centre of the record is greater than that applied at the beginning. So all anti-skate settings are a compromise except where the anti-skate is measured.

This is why, in the final analysis, you always set anti-skate by ear...

js wrote.......

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Depends on the cartridge, it's tracking ability, its playing weight

So in this case you think this maker should have installed some bias control then ??

This one js........

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this is a £17,000 set up so you would hope some research has been done to come to this conclusion !