Linear tracking vs. Pivoted tracking tone arms.

Lbo, I believe that theories of tonearm design are less important than their execution. I was a long-time owner of a linear tracking ET2 tonearm, with its unique air bearing mechanism, but now I am the happy owner of a VPI 10.5.
I think the Michell/Rega combination will likely yield better sound than your Sony, given its belt drive system and the strenth and rigidity of the Rega arm. Those features are just as important as linear vs. tangential. Of course, you want to assure proper overhang and anti-skating, but those should not be a problem.

While i can't hold a candle to Albert's knowledge or experience with vinyl, i do agree with his comments. I currently have three different linear trackers and one pivoted arm TT.

As someone else mentioned in another recent TT / vinyl thread, it is not necessarily the gear that you are using, it is how well it is set up that matters. While this was primarily talking about VTA, it could apply to anything. As such, work with what you have to obtain the best possible performance until you find something that you are sure will suit your needs. There are a LOT of things to consider when looking at TT / Arm / Cartridge combo's. Believe me ( and i'm sure that you already know this ), you can spend a LOT of money moving sideways or spinning your wheels in this hobby. Sean
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I know I am going to be attacked big time for this, and I am not even going to defend myself, I am going to hit and run, let the insults fly as they will. I cannot begin to understand how Rega has gotten away with selling an arm with no VTA adjustment for all these years. I would by an AQ in a heart beat, even if I knew it had a few flaws, before I would buy what I can only consider a lo-fi arm like a Rega, since it has not real VTA adjustment. I have had my say, blast away!

Lou, you don't have to run. It's true that Rega arms are made cheep and have an alarm wire in the arm tube but they work well. The first goal of arm is to track properly. The sonical performance more depends on turntable and cartridge rather than on arm unless it's realy expencive high-tech arm.
On that reason I've decided to pass on SME arms and wait until I'll be able to hook up myself with Graham...

a couple of points to consider- while it is true that linear designs are technically superior in reducing tracking errors than a pivoted arm,they also tend to be more complex to fully implement,are generally less reliable and typically more expensive to produce than a pivoted design.The reason pivoted arms permeate the market is that they can produce excellent results reliably and at reasonable cost.Success with a pivoted design is closely tied to the skill and accuracy of setup and if tracking errors are heard ,it is far more likely that those are from inadequate cartridge installation, less than precise alignment and deficiencies of the cartridge itself.
for lou-not a blast but to call the Rega arms lo-fi is a mistake.It is the most successful tonearm in its category for good reason: it plays music well and offers exceptional value.The reason that there are so few tonearms available at its pricepoints is because its superiority effectively crushed nearly all the competition for nearly 2 decades.The VTA issue is the result of Rega's long standing belief that stability and rigidity are more important than convenience.You may choose to agree with this stance or not.The downside is that this approach of using machined spacers to accomodate varying cartridge heights and VTA results in fairly large steps. The rigid nature of this approach,while paying off in musical and sonic benefits is less than adequate for use with certain fineline profile stylus profiles and there fore will limit the number of optimal cartridge choices.Obviously the Rega cartridges will perform ideally in the Rega arms as will less VTA fussy
units such as the Dynavectors.The aftermarket VTA adjusters should go a long ways to addressing the more VTA persnickety cartridge options.