Linear tracking turntables, whatever happened?


Curious as to the demise and downfall of the seemingly short lived linear tracking TT.
Just from a geometry point of view I would have thought a linear arm should be superior to one with a fixed pivot that sweeps through an arc.
Obviously there is much more to it than that, sort of the reason for this thread.
I am genuinely interested in trying one out for myself as well.
128x128uberwaltz
I will say, the Trans-Fi Terminator arm is VERY reliable and does not have concerns regarding the air supply.  I have one and never had any issues because of the type of pump used.  It does sound extraordinarily good for the money and stays the way it's setup.  You sometimes have to recenter the carriage if it veers too far to one side--a 2 second adjustment.
uberwaltz
Guess I am now one of the soft spoiled southerners as it is 78 degrees here in North East Florida today.


uberwaltz 
Your weather and your dollar exchange are just well....... not fair.
My older neighbor is a snowbird. The summers must get unbearable ?
The only healthy thing about the ridiculous dollar exchange;  is it killed any desire to browse at stuff south of the border.

Dear @uberwaltz: The TT's you ask for have many limitations and some of them are: some models accepts only plug-in cartridges, others work with cartridges inside a limited weigth range or compliance range, cartridge alignment/tonearm is dedicated you can't change it, in some  you married with the tonearm where you can't change it's " flavor " as with removable headshell normal tonearms, audiophiles do not take very seriously those units, are unexpensive and does not "impress/impact " our friends when see it,  etc, etc.

In the other side, as pivoted tonearm linear tracking tonearm has its own trade-offs ( does not exist the perfection in audio. ) no matters what.

I owned the Southern, Denessen and the ET and listened the Forsell, the Kuzma and the ones coming in the Rockport/Walker and Goldmund TTs. The ones listened in other systems I have to say very good megabuck systems.

Well, certainly performs a little different than good pivot tonearm designs and the main difference is a critical one: I never heard that its wuality low bass performance been with the rigthness that only can be achieved through a pivot tonearm designs. This is a crucial negative trade-off because bass range quality level performance affects all the system frequency range.
The quality level performance in any room/system depends first than all in that bass range management.

The Tales tonearm is a pivot design with almost no tracking distortions because tracks in linear way.

Btw, some one in this thread posted that the linear tracking tonearm performs with better soundstage and other audiophile sound characteristics adjectives than the pivoted ones but no one of those adjectives exist in the recording and certainly never in a live MUSIC at near field position where the recording microphones are " seated ", there are no facts.

You can go with the Tales.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
Rauliruegas
I owned the Southern, Denessen and the ET

@rauliruegas 
Would you be so kind, and tell the Audiogon Readers, how one goes about setting up the Eminent Technology tonearm for the very best bass.

Good question about a myth perpetuated by early “prominent” reviewers whose understanding of proper setup was limited. The ET2 gives me superior bass to any of the pivoting arms that I mentioned previously in terms of natural tonality and, most importantly, agility. Except, of course, unless one considers the overblown and exaggerated bass that the SME V produced in my system to be “better”. Now, re sounstaging? Haven’t had my coffee yet; so, later 😊