Unipivot vs Linear Tracking


I set up my first Unipivot arm night before last. It took roughly 5 hours to set up and I am still tweaking various parts and cartridge, what a work out. The arm is a Scheu classic with the Scheu Premier I turntable and a Scheu Benz cartridge.

Now I have two questions for the Audiogon club.
1. Do you consider linear Tracking superior to Unipivot?
2. Which would you say is harder to set up properly?
128x128spl

Showing 4 responses by spl

Now how about the Schroder, Graham, Breuer or Yorke ? Are these competitive with the ET II, Clearaudio TQ-1,Goldmund and perhaps further up the Linear chain? I've heard the top line Clearaudio, ET 2 and a Schroder at RMAF. Have not had one of these at home yet to audition. Would apprecite a chime in of any past or present owners of these wonderful arms.
Darkmoebius, I must admit the Scheu Classic arm was a lot of work to setup and it sounds wonderful on the Scheu Premier. For now I can sit back and enjoy the music with no fuss to tweaking the arm until I decide to change cartridge. Which incidentally I did right after getting table. I swapped out a Scheu/Benz for a Clearaudio Sigma and the results are fine indeed.

Another, point a friend made who is an ex-Stereophile writer, is that arms such as the ET 2 need constant care in all parameters to maintain good accurate playback. I have heard this arm and it sounded great, but this was many years ago. Since then I have heard so many arms it makes my head spin. Regardless, this forum is very informative to a sophomore such as myself.
Incidentally, I have thought about using an LT with the Scheu Premier. Any recommendations? Naturally, I would have to make separate base, can this work?. LT arms to consider, Air Tangent, ET 2, Clearaudio and Airtech MG-1.

Quote from
Cjfrbw

I spent some time playing with one of John Elison's spreadsheets from vinyl asylum, plugging in values for tracking error for pivoted arms. I find it difficult to believe that a properly set up pivoted arm, even a 9 inch arm, has enough error to significantly "hear" the tracking error unless the arm is not set up correctly. I tend to think the audiophile imagination "knows" there is some tracking error and runs rampant to fill in the blanks to believe that 12 inch arm and linear trackers are audibly superior "because" of the geometry advantages. If somebody states they can "hear" the superior qualities of a linear tracker vs. a properly set up pivoted arm, I would be very skeptical.
BTW, that Cartridge Man Conductor LT looks to be
beautifully engineered, must sound great.