Why Linear Tracking never took off?

Hello Eldartford,

I own a PSX800 too. I bought it some weeks ago. It's like new but since today pushinging the starting button the arm doesn't move to the outer groove and won't lower the arm on the vinyl. If I give the arm a little help by pushing it, there's no problem. Every works fine then. I wonder if lubricating the rod will help. Do you have any experience with that?

Henkaudio...The servo system that moves the arm pivot assembly quickly along the track, lowers the arm at the outer groove and picks it up when the record is finished is separate from the system that controls movement during play. I don't think that cleaning or lubricating the arm track will help, especially since you say that the arm plays OK once it gets going. If you try cleaning the track be careful not to use anything that would leave a sticky residue. I think that your unit may need some adjustment to the fast arm movement servo. Sony service centers (one of two in the USA is near Boston) claim to be able to work on the PSX800...I wouldn't let just anyone try. I have a copy of the service manual and let me tell you this is one complex piece of electromechanical hardware, and software. Yes the thing has several microprocessors in it.

This player is a technical masterpiece (I think they must have sold it at a loss) and I would ship mine back to Japan if necessary to get it fixed. In these days of the global marketplace, shipping to Japan wouldn't be much different from shipping across the USA.

I have a ET-2 air bearing linear tracking arm I purchased a long time ago. I still have not heard anything I like better.

my first was a rabco st4 and it was a joy except the wow and flutter.

i have a mapleknoll athena and its a VIVID sounding player but i need a quieter and more reliable pump and now i have a pioneer PLL1000A which is the exact tt as the phase linear 8000a.

the sound isnt what my vpi/.sme IV gives but its fun to be able to change carts quickly.

its too bad linear trackers didnt catch on but it takes effort on the part of the manufacturer and cd came in and the need became less.

some argue that linears are always off tangency and continuously correcting. just hear one and youll realize thats a fallacy, especially the iar bearing arms.

In 1984 I purchased a Sony PS X5555 ES (ES=Elevated Standard) linear tracking, bio-tracer table with the Sony moving coil cartridge. Back then the table cost $1,400.00 new. I re-carted the table with a Dennon unit, then a Benz Micro Glider unit. I used this table into 2003 then replaced it with a Michell Gryo SE /SME V arm and the same Benz cart. The engineering incorporated by Sony to develop this arm was incredible! Full auto operation, direct drive, quartz locked, safety protection features galore! The table still functions flawlessly (built like a tank) and is packed up in its original box. But...I will admit, the later system blows the Sony away at all levels of sound reproduction. The few remaining linear trackers availiable today are of very high quality....but at a very high price tag.