Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?

Re:Thegage
"I would agree (and the second link below seems to come to the same conclusion) that mechanical linear trackers (whether passive or active) do put excessive side force on the stylus, in a way that would lead to poor performance and quicker wear of the cartridge."

I have read every post so far, and I appreciate (accept) the theory that state of the art pivoted arms are currently better, but where is the evidence that this "poor performance and quicker wear of the cartridge" actually happens. I am beginning to suspect that the argument concerning the "best", is beginning to become the argument that the "other" in any form is unacceptably flawed. I protest.

This has been a most interesting thread. I started this thread off by saying that I thought linear tracking arms sounded better than pivoted arms that I had been used to. I still think my humble ET-2 sounds outstanding. However, in the interest of further education, I am going to switch back to a pivoted arm and see how it fares. I am conviced after reading all the posts that it is worth another try. The only dog I have in this fight is that I want the best sounding arm that I can afford. If the Fidelity Research FR64s sounds better than my ET-2, I will be one happy camper. I hope it does and from everything I have read, it should.

For the here and now, I have torn my table down (VPI TNT) in anticipation of the FR64s arriving. I have removed my Benz Glider and have it safely installed back in its box. The ET-2 arm and mounting board have been removed. I took my TNT bearing to my local machinist for a check up. He didn't like the fact that the tolerance between the platter shaft and the bearing bushing was .004". He pressed out the original bushing and machined a new bushing and line bored it so it now has a tolerance of .001". My bearing should now be better than new. I am waiting for the new blank armboard to arrive from VPI as well as the FR64s arm and Orsonics headshell. This should be interesting.

FWIW, I have referred to my TNT as a MKIII but I know now that is not true after studying some pictures of the TNT evolution. I believe it is an original TNT that had new corner feet installed like the TNT III. I had previously removed the two extra pulleys from the T-bar and snapped in covers from VPI to cover the two holes that were drilled in the plinth. I have replaced the motor with the 300 RPM version and I have a new SDS that I bought to replace the PLC.

02-26-10: Danwkw
Yes, Darkmoebius, Scheu with Conductor and Acoustic Solid with Ortofon

I forgot to mention that the Das Laufwerk is a dream table for me, I would love to own one(especially in slate). I also came very, very, close to owning an Acoustic Solid "One" a few years back, but could not find a reliable way to have it crated and shipped cross country. Both are great manufacturers.

I dug out the old article (High Performance Review, Vol. 4 No. 2, by Ted Simmons/David Tarumoto). Here is what it says: "...normal pivoted arms must confront this same dynamic alignment issue. To look into this motion we mounted an Orsonic Side Force Checker SG-1 in ET2 and SAEC WE 407/23 (double knife-edge pivoted) arms. The SG-1 is a cartridge complete with cantilever and stylus that has an indicator pointer attached to the cantilever to show the relative motion of the stylus. It's a very handy device to check the amount of side force correction to dial in with pivoted arms. Here we're using it to measure more dynamic changes.

"In this case, we used it to see the relative side-to-side motion when tracking sample LPs. Normal LPs, plus those with obviously off-center holes and those with definite warps were tried.

"Surprisingly, SAEC's WE 407/23 showed a much wider side-to-side movement of the pointer than the ET2 on all of the sample LPs that we used. This happened when playing both test records (produced very precisely) and typical mass market pressings."

Interesting, but only one data point, and not able to be easily verified.

Following a near 3 decade hiatus from records, I acquired via AudiogoN a VPI HW-19 MKIV with an ET-2/Benz Glider combo...I've been mesmerized by tangential arms since I first saw the beautiful Rabco ST-7, as a teenage nascent audio-enthusiast, in magazine adverts and the beguiling B&O 4002, in person...I favored the Transcriptor Vestigial for radial arms. I suppose I'm examining it from a different angle :-)

Enjoy!
Sam