Field coil dava cartridge

@mikelavigne 

constant minor side load is not as big a deal as sudden heavy side load.

True

linear trackers do also require precise set-up or they can put much more stress on the stylus at the point of initial contact with the groove....getting arm started; than a pivoted arm which swings free. 

Thats not necessarily correct - depends on inertia, not mass, and bear in mind a 12gm cartridge at the end of a 12" arm has significantly more inertia than the same cartridge at the end of a 7" linear arm. The effective mass and inertia on my FR64S are significantly higher than my ET2 for example. I find the ET2 linear tracker easier to set up accurately in fact - parallax error is much less likely on a linear tracker with an appropriate jig- than with a pivoted arm. Overhang is set with a very finely scribed line - much finer than a "hole" or thick dot on a typical protractor.

i also switched from the Rockport to the pivoted Durand Talea back in the day and overall preferred it at the time. now i own three pivoted arms (2--10.5" and 1-12") and they do their job in an exemplary manor too. more than one way to skin the cat and it’s all a matter of execution, not dogma. 

Yes I agree - I used to be a top end distributor at the peak of analogue - there is no perfect arm, linear tracker, gimbal, unipivot, knife edge - they all have pros and cons. I keep multiple arms of all types in rotation. More important is the quality and execution of the actual design and the synergy with cartridge.

Arm/cartridge synergy is a lost art now, as most brick and mortar shops simply don't carry the stock for customers to assess various combinations of cartridge and arm - in fact most sell top end cartridges or arms to order now - no opportunity for audition - sad fact.

@dover , It is difficult to achieve with three eyes. Bruce Thigpen needs more study in the area of suspension and mass loading. The groove loading at the horizontal resonance frequency of any air bearing arm is horrendous and clearly audible as a pitch irregularity which may well be why Mike Lavigne seems to prefer pivoted arms. I have to agree that negating skating entirely is the biggest advantage of straight arms. I think the best approach to that problem would be the Reed 5T or the Schroder LT. I also have to admit that the magnetic antiskating systems of some arms is superior to other methods. 

@intactaudio , @rauliruegas  is absolutely right. Our ears are very sensitive to amplitude changes but could never pick up a change in distortion of 0.1%. Humans are entirely incapable quantifying what they hear. More than likely whatever they think looks better, sounds better. 12" arm are just another form of penis envy. They come from an era when radio stations played 16" records and should have died with it.  

Dear @intactaudio : Seems that your post is more a one to hit me than to enhance the issue under discussion.

" for someone who insists on 0.1dB riaa accuracy for hi-fi, you sure seem to have a very loose definition of the word "significant" "

You can’t compare what significance has the eq. RIAA against a tonearm tracking error. Everything the same you can’t detect/aware of a 0.1° tracking distortion or the difference at most inner groove of only 0.01° tracking error.

"" I do not believe the "weighted" distortion measurements derived from the formulas is actually representative of the sonic penalty angular mistracking error can cause. ""

That’s only a " believe " that means almost nothing. Why not try to modeling the issue and come back with your certainty conslusions and in this way all of us can learn about.

" I generally trust arguments formulated from the listening chair "

That’s a subjective " anecdotic " opinion that can’t prove nothing for other people with different ears and different systems. Yes , maybe measures do not say all what is happening down there but always are facts and not " believes ". Remember that ears is a way limited " tool " that is didifferent in any human been.

R.

@mijostyn "Humans are entirely incapable quantifying what they hear. More than likely whatever they think looks better, sounds better". 

I have to refute this statement, being influenced by the Earliest of the London Punk Scene.

I can assure the worse it was looking, the better it sounded.  

Strangely I also remember Peoples Vomit in a Mosh Pit had an appealing aroma as well, back in these days 🤐. 

I lived in Camden 1976-1977, and between The Hippodrome/Camden Palace/KoKo and Dingwall and on up to the Roundhouse there was lots to slip up on adorning the sidewalks (or pavements as we Brits call them)! Or was Peoples Vomit a punk band I missed?