Arm Differences ...... ,etc.

Audiophiles love arms because there are so many complex angles and dangles to adjust!

The dirty little secret is that a Linear Tracking arm eliminates all these sources of error, many of which cannot be eliminated over the full range of arm motion across the record. Linear tracking arms can have problems of their own, but not as many as a pivoted arm. A decent linear tracking arm beats any pivoted unit.

Excuse me now...I must go to the bomb shelter.

I don't think that the advantages of a linear tracking arm are much of a secret, dirty or clean. Given a much larger discretionary budget.....

I would take issue with the superiority of the linear trakers. The drawbacks are quite different than in fixed pivot arms and ones musical preferences would probably dictate which set of drawbacks one prefers. In solving some problems, others are introduced. I'd go into it but I used up my fifteen minutes several posts ago. I would also point out that since the Avid Volvere, which we are speaking about, is a suspended turntable specifically designed around the SME arms that there may be issues of weight distribution and rigidity associated with tacking on a linear tracker.

I agree linear trackers on a suspended table is a very difficult application. There are all kinds of pitfalls involved with that kind of setup. Most people tend to shy away from that combination.

Marty and Tom are correct, of course. My apologies to Richard for considering only my setup with respect to the linear arms.