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Tracking error distortion audibility

I recently unpacked my turntable from a couple of years of storage. It still sounds very good. Several times during playback of the first few albums I literally jumped from my chair to see which track was playing as it sounded so great. After a while I realized the "great" sound was always at one of the "null" points. They seem to occur at the approximately the proper place (about 125mm from spindle) and near the lead out groove. Questions:
Is this common? I have improved the resolution of my system since the table's been in storage but I don't remember hearing this before.
All others geometric sources of alignment error not defined by the null points (VTA, azimuth etc.) are essentially constant through out the arc correct? If so they should cancel out. I assume the remedy is a linear tracking arm but I am surprised at how obviously better the sound is at these two points.
Table - AR ES-1, Arm - Sumiko MMT, Cart. - Benz Glider, Pre - Audible Illusions, Speakers - Innersound electrostatic hybrid
Do linear arms really sound as good across the whole record as I hear at only the nulls with my set-up?
feathed
berlinta
104 posts
 
Hi again,

Dertonarm:
"Dear all, after we have now learned that finally all parameters of the tonearm geometry are variable, nothing can stop us now entering analog heaven."

Yup, if your tonearm offers the key parameters to be varied, you can indeed implement standard alignments(B,L,S) or even move the Nullpoints according to your own preferences(better do the math first...)

"If any of you will still suffer inner groove distortion....... well, don't worry that happens. Move your tonearm, rotate the cartridge. If it distorts now at the run-in grooves? Hey - be flexible. Times may be hard, but modern."

Cynicism doesn't help. Applying math does.

Best,

Frank
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Dear Berlinta, it is very difficult to say something "straight", if your post is not approved by the moderator and therefor never actually posted (which happened with several of my posts in the dispute about the turntable drives when I was "against the gang" - thats why I moved out of that discussion).

Galileo was an analogy of course, as were the windmills - but I think my point is clear.

For many small audio business today the online forums are the best way to marketing their product(s).
To do so, they must maintain their status of authority in the segment of the audio market their product is located.
This is legitimate - of course.
When this status is endangered in any way, it becomes an ego battle very soon - quod erat demonstrantum in the discourse about the bearing friction which became a dispute about turntable motor drives in general.
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Dear Raul, you are right.
Maybe its just one dogmatic ego which can't stand his mirror image......
I just do not see the term democratic transferable to the world of physics, mechanics and geometry.
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Dear Berlinta, as I announced before: - I leave this thread now.
Our dispute doesn't bring this thread forward in any constructive way.
siniy123
166 posts
 
if the tonearm is aligned to closer to zero tracking error at the inner grove you should not hear any distortion or mistaking if you stylus has a good polish, cartridge suspension is good and tonearm is good mechanical match for the cartridge. Mastering engineers usually compress the dynamic range of inner tracks or put low dynamics tracks there. The limitation is obvious: they have to fit same time of music into less linear grove distance. I noticed that modern productions cartridges are not coping very well with problems of inner grove. I'm attributing this problem to much lesser styli quality today even at the highest price levels that it was in 70x-80x even at pedestrian level prices. There are obviously always exceptions today, such as Denon. Just to give you some examples: my Technics EPC-200CIIL, Micro Acoustics 630MP, Audio Technica AT20SS and half a dozen other MM and MC cartridges don't show any distortion.
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