Unipivot vs Linear Tracking

Darkmoebius, I must admit the Scheu Classic arm was a lot of work to setup and it sounds wonderful on the Scheu Premier. For now I can sit back and enjoy the music with no fuss to tweaking the arm until I decide to change cartridge. Which incidentally I did right after getting table. I swapped out a Scheu/Benz for a Clearaudio Sigma and the results are fine indeed.

Another, point a friend made who is an ex-Stereophile writer, is that arms such as the ET 2 need constant care in all parameters to maintain good accurate playback. I have heard this arm and it sounded great, but this was many years ago. Since then I have heard so many arms it makes my head spin. Regardless, this forum is very informative to a sophomore such as myself.

Spl,

I bet the Classic is killer with the Premier, it seems T. Scheu really knew what he was doing. The Tacco is superb once dialed in, but also a bear to fine tune.

Quite a hobby we've picked....

Incidentally, I have thought about using an LT with the Scheu Premier. Any recommendations? Naturally, I would have to make separate base, can this work?. LT arms to consider, Air Tangent, ET 2, Clearaudio and Airtech MG-1.

Quote from
Cjfrbw

I spent some time playing with one of John Elison's spreadsheets from vinyl asylum, plugging in values for tracking error for pivoted arms. I find it difficult to believe that a properly set up pivoted arm, even a 9 inch arm, has enough error to significantly "hear" the tracking error unless the arm is not set up correctly. I tend to think the audiophile imagination "knows" there is some tracking error and runs rampant to fill in the blanks to believe that 12 inch arm and linear trackers are audibly superior "because" of the geometry advantages. If somebody states they can "hear" the superior qualities of a linear tracker vs. a properly set up pivoted arm, I would be very skeptical.

BTW, that Cartridge Man Conductor LT looks to be
beautifully engineered, must sound great.

I've used an ET2 now for 11 years. In many ways it can still offer state of the art sound, and relatively inexpensively for those looking. I'm certain it has it's flaws, but I know I've mentioned elsewhere on these forums that I just can't be beat for groove distortion, especially towards the end of an lp where grooves are tighter.
I like the look of the "Conductor" tonearm and hope it does well. It seems to offer a reasonable alternative to the big boys of pivoted design.
On some comments regarding tracking error made above, I wonder if those who can't hear .8 of a degree of error can hear the differences in cables????