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Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?

My answer to this question is yes. Linear tracking arms trace the record exactly the way it was cut. Pivoted arms generally have two null points across the record and they are the only two points the geometry is correct. All other points on the record have a degree of error with pivoted arms. Linear tracking arms don't need anti-skating like pivoted arms do which is another plus for them.

Linear tracking arms take more skill to set up initially, but I feel they reward the owner with superior sound quality. I have owned and used a variety of pivoted arms over the years, but I feel that my ET-2 is superior sounding to all of them. You can set up a pivoted arm incorrectly and it will still play music. Linear tracking arms pretty much force you to have everything correct or else they will not play. Are they worth the fuss? I think so.
mepearson
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rauliruegas
13,103 posts
 
Dear Mepearson: Yes it does. You can see it here:

http://www.vinylengine.com/library/audio-technica/at-
1503.shtml

I don't think many " audiophiles "/high end own it
because this tonearm are an almost unknow item for the
" audiophiles ", what a normal audiophile knows is
normal tonearms: Triplanar, Graham, SME, etc, etc.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Darkmoebius, agreed.
BTW - most smaller rooms have much less problems with standing waves in the critical area. One of my friends has a top tier system in a rather small room (15' x 16 x 8 ). His woofers are DSP controlled and this system features absolutely superb, clean, dynamic bass performance right down to 18 hz.
No one believes this when entering the room and it is always jaw-dropping hearing a large orchestra in full swing in this room.
My own room which is more than double the size is much more troubled with standing waves in a much more critical frequency range.
I solved my problems by precisely calculating the standing waves frequency and the position of the dips and peaks.
Then I moved my listening place to a spot where all was pretty flat.
Marvelous.
But moving 2 feet to the left or right ruins the bass response for the listener.
Well - as we can't really argue with physics we have to work with it following it's rules.
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rauliruegas
13,103 posts
 
Dear Mepearson: http://www.vinylengine.com/library/audio-technica/at-1503.shtml

Regards and enjoy the music,
raul.
pryso
1,939 posts
 
Derton, regarding your 2/20 post detailing your experience with various arms, one point is not clear to me. As I read it, one of your main concerns relates to ". . . stress on the cantilever/suspension system of the cartridge mounted. And it does so by design." with linear arms.

Well and good, but since groove spacing varies over the side of a record, automated arm movement for playback is out of the question. Thus even a pivoted arm moves as the stylus "leads" the cartridge/arm across the record. Is this not also a stress problem with a pivoted arm? Or is this all a function of the effective mass of the pivoted arm versus that of a linear arm? Therefore not as much of a problem with pivoted arms? Not being an engineer, I'm over my head here.
larryi
4,087 posts
 
Pryso,

With a pivoted arm, the cantilever IS stressed, to some extent, in pulling the arm into the new position as the needle moves toward the center of the record. However, the pivot and fulcrum mechanical advantage means much less force is needed to move the arm around the pivot point as compared to dragging a very heavy (in the horizontal plain) linear tracking arm. Again, this is just the THEORY; whether this actually translates into a meaningful issue is another matter.
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