Terry9, I won't even look at an air bearing arm because of the problem of too much horizontal mass. The horizontal axis has to be driven and the arm has to have a passive horizontal bearing. Then you deal with tonearm effective mass like any other tone arm. Yamaha had the right idea but I think for the best motor isolation and reliability a belt drive would be best. It is however a tricky proposition. I believe a rack and pinion design would do it, the pinion being driven by the belt. Motion is so slow noise should not be a problem. The motor then has t have some type of servo control that predicts where the tonearm has to go. I envision a laser reading the groove just in front of the stylus. A groove is like the grand canyon next to CD pits. Should be easy to do. Unfortunately, small companies lack the technical horsepower to design this. It would be up to one of the big guys like Sony, Yamaha or JVC and they are not interested in such a small market.
I encourage every straight line tracker owner to closely observe their cantilever tracking the record. If you see the cantilever drift side to side even just a little you have a problem.
I encourage every straight line tracker owner to closely observe their cantilever tracking the record. If you see the cantilever drift side to side even just a little you have a problem.

