Unipivot vs Linear Tracking

Spl, are you asking about Unipivots or pivoted arms in general? Assuming the latter...

I have to admit being in the camp of true believers around linear tracking arms. I largely agree with Sirspeedy about the magic they can deliver if properly designed, executed and set up, and I've always used a linear tracking arm in my own system. At the same time, I've heard linear arms that easily are outperformed by any number of pivoted arms (anyone remember the Rabco linear?)

Over the years, my listening with well setup pivoted arms convinces me that "it's all in the execution." The sound quality from any of the top arms, whether pivoted or linear, can be stunning when properly set up, and the sound can be indifferent to atrocious when care and attention has not been given. As always, the magic is in the details (as Lloyd Walker is fond of pointing out).

As to setup, linear tracking arms do eliminate having to make a choice about tangency -- its either exactly correct along the entire tracking line or it's exactly wrong everywhere. A pivoted arms will always be correct in at least two points across the record, even if always off everywhere other than those two points. :-) I wouldn't say that either is easier to set up correctly than the other.

We moved a year or so ago, and I had to transport and then re-assemble my Walker Proscenium turntable with its linear tracking arm. I easily spent 10 hours over severaly days finetuning the setup of the arm and cartridge until I was satisfied. (Lloyd and Fred can do it in an hour or so.) I suspect I would have spent the same time with a Graham or Triplanar or VPI or Scheu.
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Here's a minor "listening exercise" with a pivoted arm in a highly resolving system with excellent soundstaging... Pull out a record that can demonstrate excellent soundstaging (such as the Holst "Savitri" on Argo ZNF 6 or the Stravinsky "Firebird" on Mercury SR 90226 just to name two examples), listen to the overall sonic window as the arm tracks across that perfect tangency point.

In my listening experience (and that of some fellow listening companions), with a pivoted arm, as the stylus tracks across that perfect tangency point the soundstage snaps into sharper focus, everything is suddenly more sharply and clearly defined, more "solid" in presentation. Then, as the stylus moves past this point, the presentation shifts, ever so slightly, to be less solid and less definitive.

Is this a major shift? No. Do most people notice it? No. But once you become acclimated to the results delivered by a well set up Air Tangent, Rockport or Walker linear arm, the phenomenon is more readily noticed. (The Eminent Technology II arm delivers this soundstaging result as well, as I assume would the Kuzma linear arm. The B&O definitely did not as it crab walked across the vinyl.) And, I don't hear it in all pivoted arm systems, only in those where the entire reproduction chain is sufficiently resolving for the shift to be more apparent.

This is part of the experience of linear tracking arms to which Sirspeedy and Mikelavigne refer. That magical moment when everything snaps into focus on a pivoted arm is what a linear tracking arm is delivering across the entire playing surface of the LP.

Try listening for this the next time you have an opportunity with a superb pivoted arm based system playing back a superbly recorded LP with excellent soundstage reproduction.

OTOH, soundstaging is not something that pushes everyone's buttons. It does mine, but it just may not be important for others. In that case, enjoy not having one more parameter of sound reproduction to mess about with.
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