Gimbal vs unipivot tonearms

There is as much difference among different air bearing tonearms in terms of these same issues as there is between a Unipivot and a gimbal bearing pivoted tonearm. It would take a separate thread to sort that out.

@rodman99999 

I've been using a Magnepan Unitrac I, since 1981.

I have one, and recently replaced it with a Rega RB300 finally rewired with Discovery wire.

I have it on a vintage Denon, and I always thought the lack of bass was due to the table. It wasn't, at least not all of it.

The Unitrac still does some things better than the Rega, but the bass is greatly improved. This is with medium to high compliance cartridges.

      When you guys run near-field response tests, that come back flat down to 20Hz, from stylus to woofers, get back to me.

              https://www.analogueseduction.net/test-records-turntable-set-up/elipsonlp.html      (see: B4 - B9)
 
      My TL woofer system, crossed in at 80Hz (10th Order, Butterworth), was designed for output down to 16Hz, by Roger Sanders, back in 1980.      Article: published in Speaker Builder magazine that year, along with two on building your own electrostatics.

       If interested: .https://cc-webshop.com/collections/speaker-builder-magazine/products/speaker-builder-the-lost-years-...

      My TacT RCS 2.2X's room correction program cuts things off, sadly, at 20Hz.     My Dahlquist DQ-LP1 (what I was using, back when I built the woofers, didn't and I had a much larger room, as well.    I know their and the rest of my system's, capabilities quite well and have been VERY happy (except for current room limitations).

       If I were going to change anything; it would be to a swarm woofer system, to overcome the present room.

        Glad you guys are enjoying your arm/cart combos.  

        I certainly have enjoyed mine, over the past forty years!

                                               Happy listening!

         ps: Obvously, there's MUCH more to the faithful reproduction of Bass, via an arm/cart and system, than just a frequency response curve.  

         If it doesn't sound/feel/convey REAL (ie: clean/clear pitch, the tightness of the drum skins, definition between rhythm section instruments, ambience recovery, not to mention: the flutter of a slow Leslie horn or your pant legs and heart, during those pipe organ pedal notes), it ain't worth squat!

                                                    Enjoy the journey!

Dear @rodman99999  :  I almost agree with all what you posted  ( only a couple of issues where I have a " different " opinion. ) and you are rigth.

I never can put my hands in a NOS Unitrac and the only time I was nearer to I losted on ebay auction, my lost because I wanted to test it.

Anyway,  the Unitrac shares the same " problems " not only as unipivots but gimball tonearms too and these is that develops several kinds of resonances during playback that the Unitrac can't avoid and does not matters that the cartridges been high compliance.
Unfortunatelly those developed  resonances/distortions just " colored " the top to bottom the frequency range of what our system is reproducing.

In that " top to bottom " the more important issue is to damp/tame those resonances precisely at the bass range because its harmonics affects all the frequency range. Gimball tonearms are superior to unipivots in this speciofic regards.

So, I'm with the @mijostyn advise that even that you are satisfied with what you have you need to make some listen sessions with a gimball tonearm. The overall improvement could be higher that what you can imagine and if you don't like it always can return to the Unitrac.

Btw,my room/system is fine tunned through nearfield real MUSIC tracks LPs tests.

Regards and ejoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.