Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?

Depends. As you mentioned they are fussy, and require working time for a perfect set up. I have a Sony 800 linear tracker with a Grace ruby. I also have a VPI Aries I with a ClearAudio Victory. I know, 'A Sony' he must be kidding. But, hey, it does sound great, 'computer controlled', no air required. I am sure Sony never made any money on the 800 unit as the R&D just had to be out of sight. Yes, someday the unit will stop working and it will never be repaired. Maybe I will sell it, if someone will pick it up and pay a reasonable price. Hard to tell the VPI and Sony apart, sometimes.

Mepearson-Now that Raul, audiophile's audiophile has deemed your system too full of limitations to fully appreciate the pivots he supports, you no longer have a chance to get your point across. There are enough different pieces of equipment for all of us to enjoy. It becomes unfortunate when the denigration of someone's system becomes part of the mix. If the thread continues, it's unlikely that it will be about personal enjoyment anymore.

Dear Mt10425: Please don't take my post in the way you take it.

He states that the ET-2 beats every single pivot tonearm he owned and reading on the Agon I think that his latest pivot tonearms comes from VPI that are far a way from be a great pivoted one, it is not only that as unipivot type design comes with more " problems " than the best non-unipivot ones but that I think is not a reference arm. Reading through Agon I find that the latest reference to what cartridges he own was a 103R that is almost reference of nothing too.

Everybody has the right ( like you say ) to enjoy what we have and the right to post everything we want but if you come here and tell me that the ET-2 beats any single pivoted tonearm I own/owned/heard then it is my right to questioning about and that's was what I try to do: NOT to denigrate nothing but trying to put things in perspective for all of us, I try to help nothing more.
I don't read a thread/post and give an opinion till I put things in perpestive for me, I like to know of what in reallity we are talking about.

What I post/posted I made it with all respect to any one, I don't have any single reason to offend any one.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

..... No

I currently use an Maplenoll apollo with its Linear tracking arm (very short wand)and have experience with the arms on the ariadne series. I have modified the ariadne arms to develop a lightweight arm vs the original aluminum arms that were originally offered. Once set up they are outstanding but do take some time to tweak from time to time. I do not have experience with the higher quality pivot arms but the raw numbers tell you that many people feel the pivots are equal to or better than many of the linear tracking arms. That being said, the arm is just one component in a complex system that ultimately makes music. It is difficult to make broad statements about the superiority of one piece of a system without fully testing out the system. A pivot arm on a gyrodec works well but I would not even consider a linear tracker.