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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
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
If azimuth is grossly mis-aligned I will agree with you, Zaikesman.

In my setup I can easily hear the difference in AS setting changes of as little as 1/4 gram.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Zaike...I didn't mean to say that azimuth angle (also solved by linear tracking) is unimportant. The importance of skating force became evident to me when my Shure V15mr got through the Shure tracking test at 1/2 gram. It took 1 gram to do that with my pivoting arm. This is an objective (not subjective) measure. I still run the pickup at 1 gram, for other reasons.

I came to linear tracking as a result of attending a seminar on how to set up a vinyl playback system. Linear tracking was not even mentioned at the seminar. However, as a result of the seminar I learned about all the geometry, forces, and angles, and how they can mostly be adjusted only to compromise values, good only at one or two points on the LP. Some things, like making sausage, it is better not to watch. If I hadn't attended that seminar I would probably be happy with a pivoting arm!
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
I didn't say anything against linear arms, or in preference of pivoted ones. If we're talking about the theoretical ideal for how a cartridge ought to traverse a record, of course the answer is linearly. I just don't feel that skating forces in particular are all that big a deal -- that they can be adequately compensated for, and don't affect the sound all that much. Your anecdote about tracking force seems intriguing, but I don't think it qualifies as definitive evidence on the effects of skating forces, or in choosing which type of arm to go with, due to uncontrolled variables. To me, the weakest points of any tonearm design are probably their resonances, followed by their bearings -- and then their geometry -- and as a breed, linear arms don't solve the first two problems any better than do pivoted ones, if even as well. I think there's always a trade-off involved either way you go, but that both approaches can be made to work acceptably well if not perfectly.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
BTW, meant to correct this days ago and forgot, but the variable tracking angle error -- as compared with the constant cutting angle -- that's intrinsic to pivoted arms and absent from linear ones isn't the "azimuth", as was implied above (it's simply the tracking angle error). As I'm sure everyone really knows but may have temporarily spaced on, azimuth is the vertical perpendicularity of the stylus in relation to the plane of the record surface in line with the cantilever, and is adjusted by rotating the headshell or tonearm about its longitudinal axis, something that's not different for the two types of arms. Couldn't let that one stand for posterity you know...
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Zaike...Well, I didn't know that terminology. It is a bit strange because "Azimuth" in any context except audiophillia, means an angle that lies in the horizontal plane. IMHO, the proper terminology would be "Azimuth" "Elevation" and "Roll", but then this is just an engineer talking.

Question...I just looked over a brochure that came in the mail from Audio Advisor and it states that "A high-quality turntable system removes 90 percent of the record surface noise...". That might be a reasonable claim for a record cleaning machine but I am quite at a loss to see how, physically, a turntable could do that. Ideas anyone?
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