Comparison of sonic qualities of some tonearms

Just being a (semi-) wise-*ss, but I still find anyone naming their product 'Vestigial'...

Vestigial (organ) is a degenerate organ or structure or physical attribute that has little to no function in the species but possessed an essential function in the preceding evolutionary form of the species. It is the retention of genetically-encoded structure accompanied by loss of function in the species.

...is either an inside joke or a pointed commentary....😏

Now, I've still own LPs'....and 3 + TTs', so I'm committed in my own fashion. ;)

...but they're all tangential arms in various ways.

Half tempted to take a joust at making a 'nuevo-Rabco' that won't drive people crazy,...and is silent, and works without an air compressor....and won't make your CCard wilt...

...but I diy Walsh speakers that work.

Somebodys' got to push an envelope that has no return address....*L* ;)

Others have already pointed this out and I may as well pile on:

The sound of the tonearm is highly conditioned on matching, to the cartridge and imho also to the table.

It’s trial and error. Better for many people to buy them from a dealer who has done the trialing and erroring for you and is selling them as a package, but best to take the time to do it yourself, you will learn more.

I have been using a Sumiko MMT with a VPI HW MK IV and two Koetsus, an Onyx and a Rosewood Signature, for several decades.

See

theaudioatticvinylsundays.com/about

for details of the rest of the system.

@mijostyn : " Those are huge benefits, not that you can ignore other aspects of tonearm design. "

In the example measurements of the SAT tonearm its maximum tracking erro is a " huge " 1.42° but only at one surface place, normally the tracking error is around 0.5° to -0.5°

What I said is that pivoted LT has no " huge " differences or beats the normal pivoted tonearms and both normally beats any LT tonearm in the bass range performance more or less in the same bass range where digital always is superior to the LP experience/alternative..

R.

asvjerry, That may be why the Vestigial tonearm, supplied by Transcriptors with their still futuristic turntables, lies in the dustbin of audio history.  The other reason is it was a terrible design.

Pindac, I was surprised not to see carbon fiber on your list of headshell materials to be evaluated.  In the right context (with medium to high compliance cartridges), I have had favorable experiences. Also, Ortofon and Yamamoto both make creditable wooden headshells that are not P'holz.

@rauliruegas 

Yes, the standard pivoted tonearm has a 1-1.5 degree tracking error.  The linear tracking tonearm that I have mounted (Reed 5A) has a 3-4 minute tracking error (which is 1/15-1/20 of a degree);  I don't know if it is this lower tracking error is responsible for the difference that I hear, but it seems reasonable that it could account for the improved soundstage that I hear when playing the LT tonearm.