Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?

We as audiophiles can only control what we can reproduce in what is captured, that is, we didn't record the damn sound. Since we have no control over the recording, the absolute sound is unobtainable. However, it is possible to get close to what the source is, that is, master-tape quality. What good is absolute sound when we cannot feed the reproduction chain with absolute sound? Besides, a lot of recordings are far from absolute and very often terrible sounding. I rather listen to a crude recording of Charlie Parker than a pristine recording of a Sheffield Lab record. How many times do I have to suffer through the recording of bats flying out of a cave?! Sometimes it's not a question of "does it sound like you are there" but "do you want to be there." Some audiophile recordings have music so bad that I wouldn't want to be there even if you pay me. Unless someone who can control every step of the chain from the microphone to the speaker end, the absolute sound is not possible. You can, however, get the absolutely toe tapping sound.

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Atmasphere, I understand your confusion with how I seemingly arrived at a different conclusion. I did not do a very good job of explaining that I agreed with Syntax as concerns audiophiles, NOT manufacturers, as a group.

Mepearson, from my vantage point, you prove my point. I don't believe I have the subjectivist argument reversed at all. My argument encourages listeners to listen and arrive at their own conclusions, NOT based on what others say. It has been demonstrated time and time again that numbers actually tell us very little about how something sounds. Remember "Perfect Sound Forever"?

Cjfrbw, where to begin? All I can say is that, with all due respect, you could not be more mistaken. Reference to the "absolute sound" as you call it, is exactly what most musicians use, and prefer. The fact that they are seldom satisfied with reproduced sound makes my point. They listen to music in very different ways than most audiophiles do. They are accustomed to listening for subtleties available in live sound that are simply obliterated by the recording process. That is at the root of their disatisfaction. And BTW, musicians, as a percentage of the overall population, have far more audiophiles in their ranks than not; to debunk a popular myth. And they most certainly are sensitive to the true sound of instruments other than their own.

Look, no one is suggesting that the pursuit of the absolute is the only way to enjoy music in the home. If it sounds good to any given person, great! As has been pointed out, why judge? But to deny that there exists, in fact, a true reference, is being closeminded, and to refer to the pursuit of such as "smug delusional" is a kind of aural equivalency that only serves to dumb-down excellence.

Hiho, well said. The pursuit of the absolute sound does not have to be an end unto itself. Exposure to the only absolute sound (live music), educates us, and helps us put together more satisfying sound systems. That's the point. Simply because it can not ever be achieved, does that mean that we should abandon that which might help us get 50%, or 80% of the way there? Or should we just say the hell with it, why bother? To me the answer is obvious.

Dear Samujohn: +++++ " So what would you like to see us/them do? " +++++

well, one answer is clear in these last 10-15 posts: that audiophiles/Agoner's at leat AGREE. Everyone of us have different opinions, some of those opinions are way different where some of those opinions are more similar than differents.

Obviously that in a forum like this there are at least one reason from at the end we don't get an unanimous opinion: almost every one want to win, normaly these forums are to find out the winner and the loosers, IMHO we need some kind of mature about where the important subject be not who has the reason or whom is wrong but how we can get a more or les unanimous conclusions and I see it very complicated because every body wants to win!

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Over the years I have been involved with a fair number of recordings, some of which have made it to LP, others CD only and still others that only exist as R2R.

What I have found is that having a master tape to help me with evaluation is extremely valuable. Further, working with the musicians and developing the recording techniques for a particular project helps a lot too.

The primary thing is that you know what it sounded like live. If you go to LP from there, you know what the LP should sound like and it gives you a really valuable leg up on assessing other parts of the playback chain, for example the tonearm.

On the last recording I did, I installed Western Electric tube mic preamps that I had rebuilt into the studio, and we ran them directly into the recorder, bypassing everything else. This is what I mean by developing the recording technique. Of course the technologies always falls short of the live musicians, but its all worthwhile as long as we keep two things in mind: strive for the best, and enjoy the music.