Top linear trackers

Millercarbon, maybe your ecstatic mood is induced by your various PHTs placed strategically here and there.

I have not made direct long term comparisons between the Airline and a conventional arm on my set-up due to the inability to get the Minus K to balance correctly with the additional weight (30 lbs) of a second arm pod and the requirement of a single center of mass to get the Minus K to "float" as it should. My judgment of sonics attributable to the linear arm (which I did not comment on above) may also be influenced by the fact that I went from a very good self-isolating table (the Kuzma Reference) to a very high mass table with no suspension (the XL). That said, what I hear is rock solid images in a very spacious presentation with no noise (unless there is some flaw in the particular pressing). I can best describe it by saying that you notice no "halo" around the sound coming from the turntable-- something that is most noticeable when it is absent.  Whether that is solely attributable to the arm, or the combination of the arm with the very high mass table is not clear.
The Airline (and this may hold true for the ET2 as well) also seems to like a lower compliance cartridge. After years of running the usual high-end Lyra and Airtight cartridges, the synergy with the Koetsu stone bodies has given me the best sound I've ever had from this system. That cartridge change has also rectified one of my chief complaints about the sound of my system- the lack of convincing, deep bass, which is often a complaint about these arms. On double bass, or the lowest registers of a concert grand,  I now get a fully fleshed out image that not only has real gravitas, but also the sort of dimensionality in the bass for which the Koetsu is best known in the midrange. These qualities keep me soldiering on despite the complications of running this high mass rig in an old house with springy floors and air hoses and compressor. Perhaps when our current health crisis subsides, you can make some meaningful comparisons and judge this for yourself. 

Dear @earthtones : " Yes, it's got the extra length for lower tracking error, but I still hear inner groove compromises so that's why I'm looking seriously at linear trackers. "

Unfortunatelly and especially with the whole analog rig always exist trade-offs.
If it's real that a longer tonearm has lower tracking error it's true too that the cartridge/tonearm alignment must be super accurated because a minimum inaccuracy rpovoque even higher errors that in a shorter tonearm. In the other side in a longer tonearm the developed resonances/distortions are higher than in a shorter one.

With linear trackers exist trade-offs too like the opnes you named and others and one of those " others " is in the bas range ( specialy inl low bass. ) where almost any pivoted tonearm but unipivots are second to none and superior to the LT.

Now, those inner grooves compromises with a good analog rig and a high resolution system as your can be put at minimum where you can't detect it for this you need a good damped tonearm and a a cartridge with good tracking habilites. I don't know if the 312S comes with a trough for silicon oil damping as the SME V, this helps to better tracking and lower resonances.

Now and even that your cartridge/tonearm frequency resonance  has no problem your cartridge is a low compliance one and bad tracker that shows normally at inner grooves.

The tracking error in the SME and other tonearms is really small for been or develops that problem. I that been the problem then the 98% of audiophiles that use pivoted tonearms always have your problem and in my case in the last 10-15 years I left to have that kind of peroblem. LT can't fix it because the trouble is in the cartridge maybe only the one you own not all SS Susorro samples.

I have several cartridges that runs in pristine way the Telarc 1812 LP that is the most extreme challenge at inner grooves.

So, I think that your problem is not exactly at the 312S but somewhere down there.

If you want to go a head with a LT then could be " healthy " to test it before buy it at your place with your cartridge.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.  

or could be that your tonearm sample is out of specs.

@erthtones you can try to contact directly Peter looking for adcvise about and in the other side with SME too.

Do you already tested other cartridges in the 312S?, I think that you could do it and see what happens.

Btw, what happens  when at the inner grooves of an LP ( Classical. ) there is no those normal climaxes? any trouble down there too?

R.

@rauliruegas I’m quite sure the tonearm is fine and I’ve run three different cartridges in it - a Benz Ruby 3, a Kiseki Purpleheart, and now the Soundsmith Sussoro, which by far tracks and reveals the best I’ve heard. It was a bit of a challenge aligning the cartridge since the SME paper alignment template is a joke, so I did quite well with my SMARTractor and adjusting the sliding base in an iterative process to get a Baerwald alignment spot on. (I’m not interested in Stevenson). Then I ran the Analog Magic software to help get the other parameters precisely dialed in. **There is no gross tracking distortion generally with my good records. Instead the soundstage gets slightly pinched or constricted**. To give one example of a great recording of mine that is however, compromised, on my well recorded copy of Paul Paray Conducts Ravel/Debussy, Mercury Living Presence reissue, one side has music well towards the center. It is there, for example, that the soundstage collapses and distortion rises moderately. This record plays tremendously until the last few millimeters! I know the grooves themselves may be limited and perhaps the engineer squeezed too much on one side. It is my hope that with a good linear tracker the range of excellent sound will be vastly increased.