2. analog
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Where did tracking error go?

Back in the dark ages, when men were men and I still owned vinyl......
There were many tonearm designs, not to mention linear tracking designs that were meant to keep the stylus perfectly in the track as the tonearm moved in an arc across the record.
My local dealer carries a few fancy schmancy turntables - but none of the tonearms address this. He couldn't answer the tracking error question - in fact he looked like he hadn't heard of it before.
How did we make this go away? What's next - gravity?
24phun
dewald_visser
176 posts
 
I guess we understand it better now... it has been researched so much that it isnt an issue anymore...

DV
drubin
3,277 posts
 
Tracking error is still an issue -- it will always be an issue with a pivoted arm. Analog playback is fraught will imprecision and error... and yet it works.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Eldartford, excellent answer. Linear tracking may not be perfect but superior in every way to cutting across a circle with a circle (round LP with pivoting arm).
24phun OP
56 posts
 
When I left the vinyl world, linear tracking was what I was using.
Not that I'm going back there, but from what I'm gathering - linear tracking still is offered? I haven't seen any such turntables advertised or in person.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Tracking error in pivoted arms as opposed to linear arms didn't go anywhere of course, it's just that, as with direct-drive vs. belt-drive, there are reasons why one method has generally prevailed in the home audio market, and those reasons have to do with factors other than what most resembles an inverse process for how LPs are cut, because there are advantages and difficulties to each method.
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