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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
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Audiotomb...My system is quite low altitude, but the linear tracking arm benefits are real. I think that elimination of skating force is the most important benefit...much more than the azimuth angle issue.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
The benefits of low anti-skate compensation were explained to me some time ago and my experiences agree with you, Eldartford. I have been able to reduce AS force considerably, it's now down to around 1/2 gram, on my TriPlanar to great benefit. There are many LP's in my collection that I can play with no AS compensation at all and no sign of mis-tracking. I am assuming here that this indicates that there is not much skating force being applied, or that the TriPlanar is able to deal with what little there is very well.

I know I'm not dealing from experience when I say this, but I'd rather be happy with my current pivoting arm that get into dealing with the compressor and other such things that come with a linear tracker. Someday, maybe.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Dan_ed...I don't claim to be an expert on adjustment of antiskating force...in fact the futility of getting this right across the diameter of the LP, along with several other angles and forces, is what led me to seek out linear tracking. With linear tracking there is NO skating force, (not just low) and therefore no anti force to tweek up.

By the way, not all linear arms involve air compressors. The objective of an air bearing is to be frictionless, so that the pickup will move without sideforce. Well, perfection is hard to achieve, and there will be some sideforce. Another way to achieve a frictionless bearing is to use an electronic servo, and that is how my arm works. Don't be taken in by the criticism that use of a servo will inevitably result in "hunting". (Constantly moving back and forth trying "to get it right"). Only a primitve or badly designed algorithm will cause a servo to hunt. The basic control concept of my arm is to move the pivot point of its short arm at a steady rate that corresponds to nominal groove spacing. The arm angle is constantly measured, and if the groove spacing is other than nominal an arm angle will develop and then the pivot movement rate is slowly modified so as to restore zero arm angle. Note that the arm pivot point movement never stops or changes direction, so there is no jerkyness due to friction. Also, the servo does not move the arm, which is free to pivot, but only the pivot point. According to spec, the arm angle (which translates to cartridge azimuth angle)is maintained within +/- 0.05 degree.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Like I said, "someday". :) I will take your words to heart and make sure to get a good one.

Thanks.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
I don't agree that absence of skating forces is a bigger deal than incorrect azimuth. Variously adjusting anti-skate on my table produces relatively little change in sound quality. Even though the counterforce can't be 100% correct across the record's entire surface, I think it balances out at a low enough net force not to be a real problem for sound quality or record longevity. On the other hand, slightly changing stylus alignment angles can affect the sound more, especially with line-contact tip shapes.

It seems to me another potentially big advantage to linear-tracking would be the possibility of basically eliminating the tonearm (and any horizontal pivot point) altogether, but with the exception of the Souther most linear-tracking designs haven't pursued this goal for whatever reasons.
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