I heard very fine bass performance with ALL the ET arms my friends ran.We(me) are talking about different degrees of "really good".
I have a very good unipivot,and can fine tune "the heck out of it",thanks to what I heard on my friend's Air Tangent,which caused me to try to duplicate some of what I liked,there("some",only).I never felt the need to do so,until I heard so many of my LP's played on my pal's maxxed out A.T.Try the Penderecki Harpsicord Cto,on EMI to know the meaning of "drop dead dynamic/huge,juicy scaled stage",(or the soundtrack to Rashomon)on a pivot.Then play it on a maxxed out linear arm.Case closed,no matter how much rationalizing one cares to do.I wish it was not so,but it IS!!
Prior to that,I thought I was happy.But I will never lie to myself,to rationalize something I own,if I have heard otherwise.Of course I always tell myself that the tubing runs,and pump maintenance would be a bit much,but my friend's really did not work too hard once everything was installed.So now I am rationalizing that I don't want to send back my armboard for re-drilling.TOO much wasted time.Of course I admit to lying to myself,here!The linear arms I have heard(the Forsell is GREAT too,but a bit flaky,and NOW really rare)have something the pivot crowd will not be able to hear,no matter how good(and many are fabulous)they may be designed,or carefully set up!
BTW,the NEW Cartridge Man Parallel Tracker seems to be of a very high quality,and is nicely(fairly)priced.This looks to be a really good design,and has gotten some very good feedback.
I can only speak of the linear arms I know well(E.T./Forsell/Air Tangent),and don't care to spout techno stuff.The practical advantages of a "really good linear tracker" is easily heard,and I wish I had the spare time to screw around with one.
Still,there are a load of very fine pivots(no surprise there),and I am quite intrigued(not that it means anything)with the Dynavector arm,which seems to be kind of a bridge between the pivot,and linear,in some ways.
Perhaps some of the more technical oriented hobbyists could elaborate,here.I PROMISE I will never be a contrarian again!!!!
Best!