Linear Tracking Turntables - Best??

@larryi, there is a problem with this statement:

 Bass is typically mastered monophonically, which means only lateral movement of the stylus tracing the groove.  The higher effective mass in the horizontal plane would keep the arm from moving so easily so that all of that bass information is imparted to moving the cantilever which means that all of the bass information is actually recovered by the cartridge.

The problem is that bass is not mastered monophonically! Its mastered in stereo like everything else. Dealing with out-of phase bass is a problem in modern recordings, which is why a lot of mastering houses employ a passive device that makes the bass mono for a few milliseconds until the out of phase bass problem has passed. We have such a device in our mastering suite, but prefer not to use it; so far anyway I've found that if you just spend a little more time with a mastering project and do some test cuts, you can sort out a way around the out of phase bass without resorting to processing, which I like to avoid.

Further, the higher lateral mass simply means that the arm can be moving one way while the cantilever is going the other way. I've seen this in air-bearing arms with cartridges that are too compliant, and in one case at a local dealer's shop (House of High Fidelity of St. Paul, no longer in business) the excess motion resulted in the cartridge body shedding the cantilever entirely! So this issue should not be ignored or overlooked!

FWIW, I'm a huge fan of the idea of linear tracking. I think there is a way to make it work too; it will have to be a solution that has the vertical and lateral tracking masses being the same, while at the same time having the arm bearings in the same plane as the LP (to avoid change in tracking pressure on bass notes or warp).

Some of the alternative solutions like the Schroeder arm might do the trick. I'm still looking for the bearings to be in the same plane as the LP; not seen that yet.

Atmosphere; I have become so weary of these forums. Then I read one of your posts. Always enlightening! Always interesting. Always worth the read. I owned a Walker Black Diamond few years back. Read about linear carts. Did not really follow, until now.
Thanks for keeping it informative.
i'm just say'in ✌️🖖

I have used a VPI JMW 10, since 2000 (after SME’s, Triplanars and many others). Properly setup (which few owners seem to get) I have never heard inner groove distortion, or any harshness, on any of my 2000 Lps. That is just my experience, YMMV. Once setup it needs almost no adjustment. I can also can swap arm tubes with different cartridges, after a quick SRA and VTF adjustment. Turntables do not have multiple straight tracker arms.

The straight trackers are not my cup of tea.

I always wonder how does the straight tracker keep equal sidewall groove force, throughout the side, when groove spacing varies, across the Lp? You can not run the arm horizontally at a constant speed. How do they vary the speed, with groove spacing? This is audible. Also if the cartridge is misaligned, it’s off throughout the entire Lp side, and never correct.

It's up to the user the correct cartridge alignment.
However it is very easy and not comparable with pivoted arms.

The cartridge always drives the arm. This apply to linear arms also!

 All of the vintage linear trackers like yamaha px1,2,3 or pioneer pl-l1, pl-l1000 have detachable headshell once you've mention the quick cartridge swap.

 As a bonus plus, all of them are direct drives using a technology which the present manufactures cannot even dreamt. These turntables are icons of the true research & development and no one can imagine the todays production cost if ... 

 But lets get real.
 We are in 2016 where people don't sweat for their living and all the funds going to maketing, deceptive claims, ads, image makers and corrupted magazines or blog reviewers.

 Unfortunatelly the research has stopped at '80s when the Japanese giants have faced the digital trend of the wealthies.

Donc55 that's why the only ones I would use are the air bearing ones. 
Atmasphere the ET2 can be set with the bearing at the level of the LP.  
The ET is also stupidly well priced for what it is.  SOTA for under 1K used.  I think it's because a lot of people are afraid of it. And no it does not require constant adjustment. Once set it stays that way.