Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?

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.

Well Raul, I didn't mean to get your dander up. I certainly didn't mean to imply that the ET-2 is the world's finest tonearm. My point to the original post was that I think linear tracking arms have advantages over pivoted arms and that the ET-2 sounds better than any pivoted arm I have owned over the years. And yes, the Denon 103R used to be my cartridge. The 103R replaced a Van den Hul MC2 Special that I owned and paid far more money for than the 103R. I felt that the Denon 103R smoked the Van den Hull in every respect and I got rid of it. I now have a Benz Glider low output cartridge which I am sure is still beneath your lofty standards. However, even though the Benz Glider is overall a better cartridge than the Denon 103R, it does not diminish the fact that the 103R is a great sounding cartridge and another crazy good bargain in this wacky hobby if you have a head amp up to the task. I have made the point before that once your system achieves a certain level of "goodness" that incremental upgrades become a variation upon a theme. I just bought a Mcintosh C2300 preamp. Is it better than my Counterpoint SA-5.1 which has been upgraded by Michael Elliott? Yes, it is better, but I still consider the 5.1 to be an outstanding preamp.

There are far more people that own pivoted tonearms then own linear tracking arms and I would have suspected that those who own pivoted arms would think they are superior to their linear tracking brothers and that is ok.

I am not one who thinks that because something costs more that it must be better than all components of its ilk that cost less. I have been burned too many times over the years and know that you must listen with your ears and not your wallet.

I don't know how much you have to spend on a pivoted tone arm in order to surpass the sound quality of a linear tracking arm like the ET-2 which is a crazy good bargain in this insane hobby. For the here and now, I am hooked. I always reserve the right to become smarter. I bought an ET-2 brand new when it first came out and sold it after years of enjoyment. I went through 3 pivoted arms before I went on the hunt to find another ET-2 in order to get back to the sound quality I used to have.

I own both a unipivot and linear air-bearing tonearm - Scheu Tacco & Cartridge Man Conductor, respectively. For what it's worth, I found the Conductor to be easier to fine tune than the unipivot, but that partly has to do with Scheu's design. Musically, they are two different beasts, both very satisfying.

I own a Grado "The Statement" like Mepearson, spectacular cart when dialed in. I also have a Denon DL-103D.