Does vinyl have a sound?

Ralph (if I may be informal) I meant no arguement. I am sure you are correct. My problem is understanding what an arm must have to track well. The VPI's performance puzzles me as I have heard this negative comment in several posts (not you). So I was wondering why it sounds good to me.
I guess given the logic this thread has conveyed, it must have been set up correctly. I know it is actually pretty good. I have heard a number of fine set ups from my audio group, several of them own Walkers Black Diamond rig. including his personal set up!

Mechans, no argument taken!

An arm will track a cartridge well if it and the cartridge together have an effective mass that allows the two to have a low frequency mechanical resonance between about 7-12Hz. If the mechanical resonance falls outside of this range you can have all sorts of mistracking problems.

Additional factors are the 'sticktion' of the arm bearings, any play that the bearings might have, and uncontrolled resonances in the arm tube that might cause the arm to editorialize.

In addition arm bearings can be fragile! This can result in really variable results. But if all these factors come together in a good way then the arm does not have to be particularly expensive and things will work fine. If OTOH something is a little off the results can be dreadful.

Sounds like things are working better for you than bad :)

Have a good holiday!

Vinyl has a sound: noise (noise: swoosh, ticks, pops). However, the sound of the music is "colored" because most phono cartridges do not have a flat frequency response. So... I believe people like (or don't like) the sound of records because of the "built in" eq of the gear used during playback. Phono stages have a profound effect on the tone of the music too. Completely neutral (ie flat frequency response) phono gear is extremely rare and when it is heard, can sound boring or practically identical to a cd with the same mastering.
The advantage of vinyl IMO, is the unique mastering (often superior to CD) of the pressing, and is the real advantage over digital in terms of audio quality.
That being said, I prefer listening to records because they have a more engaging experience.

Vinyl from the 70's / 80's have this special Soundstage depth, vinyl from Y2k+5 have tics, pops and high prices

Nil,

Thank you for the responses -- I have a center clamp on the way -- was not using one.