Linear tracking turntables, whatever happened?

Dragged my old Technics SL-10 out today to take a good look at it. I stopped using it as it had started to sound very sibilant. Plus I had a number of other tables so.
After removing the Azden cart I can see the cause of sibilance. The cantilever was bent to one side, have to put that down to me being clumsy I guess.
Rummaged around in my cart drawer and found an old Shure M-92 variant in a p mount, nice find.
Fitted and sat down and suitably impressed with the SQ in my main rig.

As it takes up so little space I will keep it there for a while and put some miles on it.

Kevin
look for some records that sound good to you and are pressed closest to the spindle. Curious if you hear a difference on the inner grooves compared to what u r used to. Cheers Chris . 

Chris.
Guess it's time for my test mofi pressing of Crime of the Century then.

With the best track being the last track so yes very familiar with it.

Report to follow......

I realize it is not an expensive unit compared to your other table....but maybe..... it will give you a glimpse into what is possible. 

If you want to know why linear trackers are a bad idea just watch the cantilever closely while playing a record. The cantilever will deflect towards the spindle and eventually the tonearm follows, overshoots a little deflecting the cantilever away from the spindle than the whole process starts over again. What you have is an oscillating skating force. The sad fact of the matter is that the horizontal effective mass is way too high. The cartridge no longer has any leverage over the horizontal bearing. Even the Clearaudio arms do this.  The right way to do this would be to read the groove lateral movement maybe optically right in front of the stylus and drive the tonearm across the record with a servo mechanism. We can get lasers to read tiny pits in plastic why not groove lateral velocity?