Question concerning the Mint Tractor

Doug,

Insufferable? Never! Your contributions to the corpus of collective knowledge is without peer. To really extract the most from analog, you have to be picky and anal-retentive...'close enough' will always lead the analog enthusiast astry.

I do hear what you mean about the 'slide-stepping' of the entire stage however - while I wouldn't say the Mint exaggerates this effect (which is simply part of any pivoted arm), the setup precision it affords allows this effect to be heard more clearly (along with everything else, good or bad).

I've been eyeing this linear tracker for several months now: http://www.trans-fi.com/. While I don't think it will humble my Triplanar, I do believe it will allow for some keen observations to be made: what will zero tracing error sound like - hell, I've never owned a linear tracking arm, so it'll all be new(s) to me. The price is right despite its rather rough-hewn look (it's no Air Line or Airtangent), but I think it could perform extremely well.

I'm curious if anyone has tried or heard one...maybe a separate thread on this. And yes, I did read the ETM review. Good listening,

-Richard

Agree with Palsar, DD's (and Paul's) work in the vinyl domain is interesting and compelling-even if one doesn't follow his recommendations exactly as outlined, the knowledge gained can't help but influence your setup in a positive way.

You're missed over at VA Doug, but I'm grateful that I have access to your keen ear/experimentation here. Keep up the good work.

Amen, Doug, Richard ...

I frequently think about how better resolution allows you to hear more of the weird effects (sliding sound stage, etc.) as well as the good ones. The low distortion, low level detail resolution tells you a lot.

In the case of VTA, I think you hear less distortion when it's off, but you're likely more easily able to hear a shift in tonality. I'm a quite a bit more tolerant of slight tonal anomalies than I am of distortion - the latter driving me out of the room.

I think owning a linear tracker is at a minimum, a great learning experiment for inquisitive minds like yours (Richard, Doug). My experience came from the venerable ET-2.

With an unsuspeded turntable like your Teres (Doug), or your Galibier (Richard), you can easily fashion a big block of hardwood or aluminum to mount your linear tracker as a second arm, so it will be easy to compare against your existing Triplanars.

It's been some 4 years since I've done this, and it may be time to repeat the "experiment". The decision I made at the time was that the ET-2 did some amazing things, but lacked a bit of grunt.

I concluded that the ET-2 was as stunningly good as it was as much because it is brilliantly engineered, as it is because it is a linear tracker. Repeating a common theme I harp on, good design and execution show the pedigree of a product, and components with wildly different architectures (e.g. pivoting arms and linear trackers) converge because they are brilliant designs which are executed impeccably.

I'd love to sample the Kuzma. I'd also like to do a Triplanar - Linear Tracker taste test, now that I have a world class Triplanar alignment tool in my possession.

Interestingly, the alignment "protractor" you get (or can easily make) with your ET-2 is an "arc-protractor" of infinite length radius - a straight line. It would be interesting as well to try to replicate a slight alignment error with a linear tracker to see how it compares with the typical alignment we achieve with at two point protractor.

Are any of you aware of the Ladegaard, DIY linear tracker? Several of us in the original Teres build made them (I heard Jeremy Epstein's). It's a brilliant design that can be built on a kitchen table top. I kid you not.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread/t-9084.html

I'm trying to remember who (I think it was Thomas Dunker) who forwarded us the files on the arm, but Roscoe Primrose posted them on his website:

http://www.aiko.com/roscoe/airbearingarm.html

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Ah ... I took a look at the Trans-Fi tonearm. It's the Ladegaard design - leveraging the kitchen tabletop concept of using nested angled aluminum for the air bearing.

If this fellow has followed Ladegaard's general recommendations, then I'd say that this arm is most definitely worth a listen.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

"I've wistfully noted that the Mint helps me imagine what a good tangenital tracker might sound like at all points across an LP.My dream has always been a Kuzma Airline.Some day."....

I hope you do realize "that" dream!....

Maybe you'll not think I'm as nuts as I've always come off,when you own such an "amazing instrument"!...Well,you'll have a definite different opinion of LP replay,at least -:)

I'm still "wistfully" imagining ANY kind of LP replay!

Best