Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?

02-21-10: Dertonarm
we can still strive for perfection in audio reproduction even if we will never approach it...Not sitting in an acoustical perfect room should in no way keep one from trying to bring or lure the best possible performance from its equipment.

Absolutely, I agree. I'm just pointing out that accurate reproduction of low frequencies(actually all) is probably pretty rare without proper room dimensions and/or extensive acoustic treatment.

What we perceive to be "clean bass" and what actually is, can be two different things. Sounds like Mepearson has done of a good job of getting his room out of the way of the music.

From personal experience, I had a hell of time trying to tame my old 25'x16'x8'living room(just for music) by speaker positioning alone. I had free will to place everything wherever I wanted in the room(being single and all). And that was with dual subwoofers placed non-symmetrically around the room. I never really won the acoustics battle.

After looking a photos of a lot of professional reviewers rooms, I have to seriously question their ability to discern individual audio component frequency reproduction anomalies from their acoustic environment. And when they talk about the accuracy, or inaccuracy, of low frequency reproduction...Well, the brain is obviously a very powerful machine.

Dear Mepearson: I don't understand why you follow posting that I think the argument that some people make that linear tracking arms can't reproduce the bottom end are patently wrong. " ++++

no one including me posted that, what some of us posted is that the pivot tonearms are better in that critical frequency range.

Btw, that AT tonearm is one of the best " keep secrets ", I can't see how you can have a better performer at almost any price, higly recommended for any one that could think that your today tonearm is one of the best out there.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul-Does the AT tonearm have provisions for anti-skating? I couldn't see it on the picture.

Does anyone else have any experience with the AT tonearm?

Dear Mepearson: Yes it does. You can see it here:

http://www.vinylengine.com/library/audio-technica/at-
1503.shtml

I don't think many " audiophiles "/high end own it
because this tonearm are an almost unknow item for the
" audiophiles ", what a normal audiophile knows is
normal tonearms: Triplanar, Graham, SME, etc, etc.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Darkmoebius, agreed.
BTW - most smaller rooms have much less problems with standing waves in the critical area. One of my friends has a top tier system in a rather small room (15' x 16 x 8 ). His woofers are DSP controlled and this system features absolutely superb, clean, dynamic bass performance right down to 18 hz.
No one believes this when entering the room and it is always jaw-dropping hearing a large orchestra in full swing in this room.
My own room which is more than double the size is much more troubled with standing waves in a much more critical frequency range.
I solved my problems by precisely calculating the standing waves frequency and the position of the dips and peaks.
Then I moved my listening place to a spot where all was pretty flat.
Marvelous.
But moving 2 feet to the left or right ruins the bass response for the listener.
Well - as we can't really argue with physics we have to work with it following it's rules.