Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

@lewm , and in my pedestrian experience that is all clear BS. Not you, but the claims this person makes.

@clearthinker , now crank that experiment to the admitted 10 degrees. It's killing me. Anybody have a test record with synchronous sine waves in both channels? It will be easy to see the effect on a scope. 

Another important point @lewm made earlier is that an underhung arm is not free of skating due to the curvature of the record. the effect is going to skate the tonearm outwards toward the rim at both the outside then again on the inside. So at the most difficult area to track you are faced with both skating and a 10 degree tracking error. In my book that sucks. If any of you have not looked at the Reed 5T, the 5A and the Schroder LT you should. These are the solutions very bright people came up with that solve a host of issues. The only problem is that they require a lot of real estate, a table that can handle 12" arms at least.

Again, I’d prefer to compare underhung tonearms to conventional pivoted overhung tonearms. And my thought is that the more linear change in skating force from outer to inner grooves may be an advantage to underhang. Also zero headshell offset may be another. I’m just trying to understand why SQ is good, and I mean audible distortion is low.

The answer is plain. An infinitely long tonearm (or, as my physics mentor used to say with a nod to Newton and Liebnitz, "as near as makes no difference" in a strong Yorkshire accent), with no offset and it's one and only null point set near the label where it is needed most (for the density of musical information per unit length of groove). You know it makes sense, as the seatbelt campaign used to say.

Seriously, we cannot judge this tonearm until we try it. The arguments from its designer are sensible, but are they enough to overcome conventional wisdom? Only listening would tell us. I wish I were in a position to try it out!

Dear @lewm : This is what you and I posted where I’m not talking of " superiority ", I was only asking you:

" Even the "distortions" that you consistently preach against may be worse with the standard pivoted tonearms than with an underhung tonearm . "

I don’t know from where you have that statement with out showing any measurement about. "

Anyway The Yamaha chief engineer said that a sinwg of +,- 10° on tracking error is a small one and inaudible.

First is not small against 1.9° maximum in a 9" conventional pivoted tonearm. Tracing distortions is developed even in tangential tonearms but in pivoted the tracking error contributes in high way to additional tracing distortions generated that some of us can discern when ovbiously you do not according your firt hand experiences:

"  I hear no problem that I can relate to the extreme TAE, with my RS Labs RS-A1. " , fine with me.

Several years ago through the long MM thread I posted my first hand experiences ( i bougth it ) with the RS Labs that I owned for over 2 years ( at least 2 of those years was in its box/closet. ). I bougth it because was something new for me about tonearms ( in that time I owned over 20 tonearms. ) I mounted and followed all the RS Labs instructions but I never been really confortable with and return to its box till years latter some one was urged to get one and my tonearm gone for ever,

R.

And no one wants to talk about "trucking errors"?

No doubt we should all take ourselves less seriously. Especially when language errors are at play.