Experience With Linear Tracking Turntables

@lewm interesting ur experience with a B and O cartridge. I understand from

speaking to the Classic HiFi writer at Hi News Tim Jarman that the cartridges were designed to be in the linear tracking B&O turntables and turntables. As such the styli was very small and it was properly thought out as a whole system. I have a 4002 awaiting a rebuild. B&O have some incredible designers who apply their art and knowledge more for a luxury than audiophile market but dismiss their savour faire at your peril. Their top end speakers that manipulate sound around a room are exceptionally clever and sound pretty good too. 
@mijostyn speaks about the problem with lateral compliance which I’m sure is right as it makes sense - but it puzzles me that Kuzma released a silly money arm which is unusually heavy and apparently it throws the whole compliance thing out of the window - that being said the weight (being a pivoted arm) has the weight in all directions.

@lohanimal , you have to be very careful about things making "sense." Just because they make sense does not mean they are right. The whole climate hoax is a perfect example. The best thing to do is delineate the proven facts and go from there. You can also look at what the "experts" prefer but in many instances they are being paid to prefer whatever. That is where us plain folks who never get paid for anything come in. I can use and buy any tonearm currently on the market. I could spend $100,000 on a tonearm if that particular arm blew everything else away. I just spent that much on a RAM TRX because Ford pissed me off. They wanted to charge me a $25,000 market adjustment on an FN pickup truck. You will never catch me even looking at an airbearing tangential tracker for all the reasons I have previously elucidated. Mass is mass. Compliance is compliance. The two interact in very specific ways. These are irrefutable facts. People who argue otherwise are just like those who think they can change their sex. There are XX's and there are XY's. You can't change sex, you can only corrupt it. The doctors who take peoples money promising they can are evil bastards. I just had one such person commit suicide. Please pardon me for venting. I guess it is a fragile moment. 

So now we know that Mijostyn is wrong on lateral trackers and on climate. At least consider my argument for higher effective mass in the horizontal plane vs in the vertical plane. Low bass frequencies require horizontal motion of the stylus tip, which is to say that as frequency goes up, the motion of the stylus tip necessary to produce them goes from horizontal to vertical. Then where is the benefit associated with equalizing horizontal and vertical effective mass? Instead, one can argue that horizontal effective mass ought to be greater than vertical effective mass so as to prevent the tail (the stylus tip) from wagging the dog (the pivot) which would waste potential bass energy. You want the lateral resonant frequency to be lower than the vertical resonant frequency (the one we all talk about and calculate based on vertical compliance and etc.) That is what you get if lateral effective mass is greater than vertical effective mass. There is no special danger in that arrangement as the events likely to trigger very low frequency resonance are all most likely to perturb the vertical motion of the cantilever (footfalls, trucks, warps, etc), where the resonant frequency will be higher to protect against those events. I have no data to prove my thesis, nor does Mijostyn have data to prove his. Among audio engineers, there are both opinions. I urge you to at least think about it.

@lohanimal 

@mijostyn speaks about the problem with lateral compliance which I’m sure is right as it makes sense - but it puzzles me that Kuzma released a silly money arm which is unusually heavy and apparently it throws the whole compliance thing out of the window -

I'm not a fan of super heavy arms, but I can tell you that I ran a high compliance Shure V15vxmr in a linear tracker ( Eminent Technology ET2 modded ) for 10 years with the stabiliser brush removed and without changing the stylus for those 10 years.

I sold the Shure for the full original price after 10 years use - the cantilever was still dead straight and stylus wear negligible.

I've seen more bent cantilevers from incorrect anti skate than I have ever seen on Linear trackers properly set up.

Not all Linear trackers are as heavy as claimed by some - the ET2 has a lower horizontal effective mass than the FR's, Dynavector and many others highly regarded arms of today.

@mijostyn and @dover 

I get the mass is mass - likewise I also get the issue with reviewers - many a culprit there - too many to mention - a lot of Emperors New Clothes.

The Derrenger (at least i think that's the name) does a very sophisticated 'active' lateral movement - that makes sense.

The old B and O has a hybrid mechanical lateral insofar as it pivots and upon getting to a point shuffles along actively. remember - it had a very light arm and was properly thought out - in fact i liked thee engineering approach of thinking out of the box - shame there is no affordable modern alternative that can be fitted to other decks.