Why Linear Tracking never took off?

I just fired up the old Sony PSX-800 for a quick listen. The old Shure V15 pickup tracks perfectly over the complete disc at the minimum downforce setting of 0.5 gram. Try that with your SME! If you have a MC pickup tracking at 2.5 grams I guess it doesn't matter.

Also, review of the service manual tells me that the tracking angle error is held within 0.05 degree, not 0.1 as I suggested in my post. That matters for any pickup.

Hello,

I have a solution for the Sony PS-X 800 trouble, that the tonearm is not going down over the vinyl. You can do it yourself. Please contact me under MHartmaier@t-online.de

I have a Maplenoll - had different iterations through the years and have gone back to the original Athena with fluid damping trough which, as was said above, sounds VIVID compared to most of the 'tables out there, with great Prat and deep, powerful bass. It is also silky smooth, and of course, has excellent imaging. Once set up, the 'table stays set up, and I would say it has been my most reliable 'table over the years, excepting some recent classic acquisitions. For pump noise, I run two of the older, smaller pumps together, which were very quiet. Low-compliance MCs word excellently in this, and I have managed to overcome the physical problems associated with the 'table, which came down to orientation of the manifold. I am the resident expert on Maplenoll maintenance. I think a brilliant success, it was the aesthetics more than anything which led to its demise. If you are interested, Phasecorrect, I have a friend who is interested in selling his, an Athena (looks kind of like a large oak jewel-box) with updated arm, no damping trough. Works perfectly, with pump, tank and hose. He recently found something he likes better.

There was a big article on linear tonearms in this month's HIFI+ magazine (Issue 28). Kind of interesting reading.

Julie

Julie, yeah and there was lots of misinformation! First of all, the first air-bearing tonearm was apparently designed by Infinity, the makers as well of the Black Widow tonearm, as well as speakers. From there, the design went on to Old Coloney, and eventually morphed into the Maplenoll air-bearing 'tables which Bruce Thigpen was involved in before he went on his own and designed the ET tonearms. As I wrote above, problems with the arm bottoming out at the end of a side can easily be taken care of by re-orienting the manifold inside the arm-block on Maplenolls and adjusting the air-ports via the hex-screws, which thereafter never have this problem. And in practice, MCs work very well in this rig, and I have used Grados and Deccas on it as well. So reports of difficulties concerning high lateral mass are simply not audible in practice, so this difficulty is exaggerated in the article and "out there" in general. As always, imporper set-up/understanding is to blame. Of course, MCs with low compliance do work best, but since the scene is currently dominated by such cartridges, then this is not a problem.