Does vinyl have a sound?

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.

This might seem conservative but my record collection is somewhat restricted to mid or late 1950's mono classical pressings. The platters typically weigh about 200 grams and the sound engineering is primarily based on the make of instruments and the halls acoustics.
Funny but sound engineering done for classical CD's in the 21st century is primarily based on the make of the instruments and the halls acoustics.
I really never listen to either vinyl or CD and then expect to have an experience that would compare aesthetically with that of a live concert recital though I find live radio and live recordings thrilling in there own right.
Fortunately, I have a hi fidelity digital to analogue playback system which makes hearing CD's pleasurable. Vinyl does present its own qualities but for the way I listen, these idiosyncrasies are dependent upon things like microphone placement, acoustic shells, the size of the venue and how it was built, how close the woodwinds are sitting to the viola's, etc... as well as the cartridge, tonearm, turntable, phono stage, amplifier, speakers and whatever else on my end.
Mono vinyl is fun to listen to and through it I hear different things both subjectively and objectively. For me this topic is akin to asking for 100 people to imagine the color red and then somehow quantifying everyones shade of red for comparison. If I'm correct, there are at least over 200 different shades of red. There are just countless variables whenever it comes to playing vinyl and it could be that with digital playback, the spectrum of possibilities diminishes inconspicuously?
A lot of really good things said here and thanks for letting me chime in late.