There's not question that a well-set-up linear tracking tonearm delivers easily discernible and substantial sonic benefits. Like the absence of crossovers in full-range speakers, the absence of tracking error is something you certainly recognize when you hear it and you want that absence to persist. Unfortunately, there are some serious trade-offs to get that, which often drive adherents of linear tracking back to pivoted arms tracing a lateral arc.
Mass, complexity, fussiness, noisy air pumps, general geekiness get in the way of market acceptance for linear trackers. An exception is the Souther Linear Arm, now Clearaudio in TQ1 and other variants. I was involved in the final stage of design and materials refinement of the Souther Linear Tonearm back in 1980/81 and helped Lou launch it at CES. As a result I used one for several years. In some respects it was and remains the best sounding tonearm, period. Tracks anything, highly-defined, beautifully dimensioned soundstaging, objective tonal accuracy. This design, which uses a 3-point/3-bearing carriage riding precision twin quartz rails, supporting a center-pivot ultra-low-mass armtube, headshell, counterweight assembly, looks fussier than it is. It is a little delicate, but not too, and it maintains its setup for repeatable performance, within reasonable expectations. It had and has 2 primary sonic disadvantages. First, the short pivot-to-stylus distance produces audible warp-wow on less-than-flat records. This trait is shared by the Dynavector biaxial tonearm(s) and the Transcriptors Vestigal. The second drawback is that the low mass and lossy interfaces in the system render the arm a little lean sounding. Transient impacts lack a little weight, which makes the tonearm sound detailed, airy, effortless but a little clinical, irrespective of phono cartridge. It can even bleed emotion out of the Denon DL103D, which is a tough thing to do.
At the time of its development, there were so many other problems in the audiophile soundchain that this ascetic signature was more of a benefit than it is today, synergistically ameliorating some of the bloat, discontinuities, uneven resolutions and other excesses of 70s/80s gear and vinyl pressings. In contemporary audio where "hifi" is more explicitly engineered, the Clearaudio linear tracker based on the Souther design fits into a narrower range of systems as a preference over many of the tonally richer arc-tracing tonearms. At the birth of this linear tracker, the pivoted competition wasn't as good.
I went back to pivoted arms eventually, for more tone, though I just bought a table with room for 2 tonearms and I am eyeing a Souther-based design again as alternative.
Phil
