Linear tracking vs. Pivoted tracking tone arms.

Greetings fellow music lovers and equipment junkies. This is LBO (Lou) following up on all of the wonderful responces to my inquiry on linear tracking arms. I am very greatful to all who responded, even the "devil advocates".
Mr.Porter: Your insight and knowledge in this field is remarkable. The Rockport, Air Tangent, and Eminent Technology are way beyond my price range. I am trying to stay below the "diminishing law of returns" curve in my ultimate selection. The Graham pivotal is impressive and a small engineering marvel. At $2,600.00, less cartridge, it is on my selection list. I had considered purchasing the Clearaudio "Revolution or Solution" tables. Their platter bearing design and AC drive motor are not as robust as the Michell. The Revolution does have a linear arm, but I can not get detailed information on the arm, how it functions, etc., and no one in the Detroit, Mi. area stocks them. Perhaps you can add some additional comments on this table combo. Floor shift is in constant flux in my abode. With 16" centers and 2X8 joists supporting .5" plywood, I am concerned about keeping the Graham in adjustment.
Greggey: Your additional overall insight on belt vs direct drive is understood.
Sean: What in the world are you doing with four tables at one time? Let me know when you want to part with one of the Linear trackers.
Caterham: Thanks for the philisophy, cartridge, and marketing lesson. The Dynavector series was my initial choice for the Rega arm.
Psychicanimal: My Sony is a dead ringer for the Pioneer PL-800, and functions in the same manner. The same design engineers must have worked on both projects during that decade/time period.

Keep the follow ups comming.
Best Regards, Lou

If you decide to sell that PS-X555ES, please let me know.

William Gray

Los Angeles, CA
(626)794-0162
wdgray@yahoo.com

I have also run linear trackers for years. I now run a Triplanar.

IMO, the Triplanar offers a lower tracking angle distortion than most linear trackers due to the fact that most linear trackers have far more lateral tracking mass than their vertical mass.

The cantilever of the cartridge is what the arm has to follow. If your tracking mass is extreme in the lateral mode, the cantilever will flex. If it does that, it becomes the source of the tracking error! If you run a cartridge that has low compliance so you can deal with this problem, the low compliance may be a problem in the vertical mode. The cantilever of the cartridge is quite short- so if you can see it flex at all then the tracking error is considerable.

So a radial tracking arm may well have a lower tracking error!

For this reason if a linear tracker is used, IMO it should be servo controlled rather than some sort of passive air bearing or the like. In this way the lateral and vertical tracking masses can be identical. To my understanding, there are no such arms made right now.

I've got to chime in here. I've been running a Trans-Fi Terminator low pressure air bearing tonearm that is affordable, simple to set up and sounds fantastic. Easily runs with my SME-V which I also love. The music flows so beautifully off the Terminator it is hard to describe. Just sounds so effortless.

Atmasphere,
Are you familiar with the ET2 arm? Its counterweight is decoupled in the horizontal plane which lowers its horizontal effective mass. I'm not sure if any other linear tracking arms have that feature.