Linear tracking tonearms.....

Tms, I know you're busy with your move, but when things settle down, can you please post your thoughts on the magnetic bearing for the Salvation on my dedicated thread "Trans Fi Audio Salvation Direct Rim Drive Turntable". The thread has gone quiet of late, and I can't be seen to be the only one contributing to it, LOL!
Btw, I believe there is a brand new platter for the Salvation (check out the "Art Of Sound" forum, "Analogue Art" board, "Salvation Upgrades").

Does anyone know how changes in SRA/VTA effect overhang with the Schroeder LT arm? Overhang should be zero with linear tracking tonearms because they precisely trace the LP radius to the spindle. (I think the Schroeder traces many different radii toward the spindle, always maintaining tangency).

But changes in SRA/VTA effects overhang on pivoting arms and if the linear arms have no way to adjust overhang, then if it changes, the stylus would be tracing a line parallel to the LP radius but offset slightly which should produce tracking distortion.

I ask because I do not fully understand the mechanics of linear tracking arms.

Overhang has little to do with SRA/VTA. Linear arm can adjust overhang/underhang to zero too.

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Peterayer, awhile back I queried AA on this point w/r to my Trans-Fi linear arm. Bottom line is that with a linear arm small shifts off zenith are audible at degrees of error that are well below a conventional pivot arm across the arc of an LP.

http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=vinyl&n=1010331&highlight=Dave+Garretson&search_url=%2Fcgi%2Fsearch.mpl%3Fsearchtext%3Djmlab%26SelectForumcables%3Dcables

In this thread John Elison posts graphic representations of errors induced by minute variations off perfect zenith. Any good linear arm should allow readjustment of overhang after a change in VTA.

Peter, Most linear tracking arms I've seen have slotted head shells. So they can be adjusted to compensate mis-alignment by other adjustments, like VTA, and VTF. Most have a protractor with a straight line (instead of an arc), with lines that are 90 degrees off the main line to line up the cantilever (zenith).

One exception is the Thales Simplicity. With the design of the Simplicity you would have to take the head shell off, to align it, in it's jig. This is not ideal because you can not align the stylus with a load on the suspension. Since we know that different VTF will change the alignment (overhang), there is no way to know for sure if it's perfect or not.

As said above, if the alignment is off on a linear tracker the zenith will be off a little all the way across the record. Not sure how audible that is but I will look at Dgarretson's link about that.