Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?

i own both types, the Rockport Sirius III linear tracking arm, a pivoted Triplaner, and a pivoted Reed.

my experience is that optimizing a well designed linear tracker can get world class bass performance.....even compared to top level pivoted arms. the character of the bass might be different on a linear tracker than a pivoted arm. subjectively one might prefer one over another.

in my particular case i did think my pivoted arms had more bass slam than my Rockport linear tracker. then i removed the silicone dampening fluid from the Rockport arm, at which point the bass performance really came alive. the dampening fluid had been slowing down the arm, both in the vertical plane but especially in the lateral plane. without the fluid to 'push against' as it tracked sideways down the air shaft the energy level increased by a large degree.

i have 2 Ortofon A90's, one on my Garrard/Triplaner and one on my Rockport. the bass is rounder on the Triplaner, but it does not have more slam than on the Rockport. the Rockport has more articulation and tonality in the bass, the slam and decay are of different character.....more life like. i've had the A90 on the Technics/Reed. there it has more slam than the Garrard/Triplaner, maybe a touch more than the Rockport, but not alot more.

if i were to draw my conclusions from my experience with the Rockport arm with the dampening fluid then i'd likely agree about the differences mentioned above on the difference in bass performance......but not now. and......in all other matters of performance the Rockport arm 'laps the field' over the pivoted arms......but of course, it's not possible to isolate what it does from the tt it resides on.

all air bearing linear tracking arms are not the same; and unless one spends considerable time with any particular arm you cannot assume things.

"Make sure you use a surge tank with it and an air filter on the output of the tank that feeds the arm tube. You can build your own surge tank for dirt cheap by going to home depot or Lowes and buying a chunk of PVC pipe and two end caps and two air fittings."

This in a nutshell is why I have never owned an airbearing linear tracking tonearm. I just don't want to be bothered with tubing, tanks, gauges, and pumps, not to mention the noise from said pump. But if I did seek out one, it would not be the ET2. Since I don't have the scratch for a Rockport Sirius or Walker, I would go for the Trans-fi. But in the end I agree with Mike. The whole argument is specious, because "it depends". Or as Syntax said in simplest response to the OP, "no".

Ralph, servo arms have inherent problems too. The Rabco depended upon the arm swinging in a "micro"-arc so as to activate a relay that then switched in a tiny motor that drove the pivot along a rail. Thus in fact the Rabco (and the copycat Goldmund T3) transcribed a series of tiny arcs across the surface of the LP, which may place even more stress on the cantilever than does a well designed air bearing tonearm.

Hey 213 Cobra (Phil), I too was a friend and customer of Julius' in his end stage as a manufacturer. Over a period of 5-7 years I bought two amps from him, a stereo unit and then an H3aa. I have a vivid memory of standing in his shop space while he helped me box up the H3aa's, so I could carry them to my car. There were home-made power transformers that had been recently wound and "dipped", hanging on a wire to dry. The place smelled like a freshly tarred road on a hot summer day. He was a very sweet guy, a real "class act". Just a month ago I was visiting a record store that is virtually across 72nd St from his Broadway and 72nd St walk-up "factory". I looked for the door that used to lead up to his 2nd floor space, but could not identify it, because the building has been modified since.

Syntax, I have no idea what you mean when you say linear tracking arms can't reproduce a "Physical Force." You need to explain what that means.

MikeL's comments are always very interesting because Mike owns so much great gear and therefore has lots of experience with listening to top notch gear. For people to outright dismiss linear tracking arms based on some theoretical shortcoming without listening to what they can do is just nonsense.

And Lewm, I understand your position. I have been fortunate to have my own listening rooms that have adjacent space available where I could park my pumps and surge tank out of sight and sound from my listening room. If I had to have the pumps and tank in my listening room, I would probably be using a pivoted arm instead.

Dear friends: IMHO trying to achieve a precise conclusion of which type of tonearm is better with out take in count how that tonearm is " surrounded " in the analog chain and in especial with which cartridge(s) is almost useless.

The theory behind that a linear tracking/tangential tonearm is better than a pivoted one is IMHO only that: theory, nothing more. A theory can be usefull when we are talking on perfect " stages " but the analog recording process along the reproduction process through our analog rigs are far away from be perfect.

There are cartridges that could perform better in a linear tonearm than in a pivoted one as there are cartridges that performs better in a pivoted one than in a tangential one.

Could this means that either tonearm design is better than the other?, certainly not only tell us that that cartridges performs better in that tonearm because that tonearm makes a better cartridge matching than the other tonearm design.

Now, through my own experiences ( in my system. ) and through experiences ( many ) in other audio systems I never heard/find any single linear tracking tonearm set up where the low bass ( not low mid bass. ) had/has the tightness , fullness, definition and truest that have in a good pivoted one. Btw, I always think that the mechanical " grounded " on a pivot design is very important part for its performance in this frequency range.
This alone characteristic where IMHO the pivot tonearms are superior makes a difference: this bass range frequency is the foundation of the music and it is here where tiny differences makes the difference of course if we own a system that can play clean in that bass frequency range.

The process/mechanism/relationship to reproduce LP's is really complex and to take a sole characteristic in a stand alone link ( the tonearm ) is IMHO a very simple and " un-true " way to seriously analize the subject.

I respect to all those people that " die for " the linear tracking tonearms but many of them ( Walker, Rockport and the like ) have it because they don't have any other choice with those TT's, the linear tracking tonearm is part of the TT package. It is not possible on that TT's to mount a pivot tonearm and make a true comparison.

Anyway like many other subjects in high end audio always will be different opinions about that one way or the other could help to understand more in deep each one audio subject.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.