Unipivot vs Linear Tracking

Personally I never went into my friend's home(the Air Tangent guy....Btw,his pump was highly modified,and the bass was amazingly good/deep/powerful...in case someone decides to "go on" about air bearings hurting bass)thinking about the business of "tangency" as it compares to a pivot,and "leaning" towards "wanting" to hear his set-up in "any" specific way!...

Or anything else,other than simply enjoying the plethora of amazing LP's he always surprises me with(an understatement).

I could care less about the technical aspects of the hobby(to a point)as it is with experience,and the "you just know it",from "that" experience which drives my own approach.....So,technically I am a little above clueless-:)

One thing I "DO" know is....a superb linear/air bearing arm(a "really" good one)just "lets" a great set-up "open into a listening room better"(to me)than anything else,which happens to be attached to the cartridge!....

Nothing too technical.Just simple,repeatable observations.Alot of 'em!

Yes,I definitely think that the issue of "resonant characteristics" is at play here(to whatever degree)....

The lack of any hard contact points(within the bearing),which is a bone of contention to me....This just "has to have some sonic signature"(whether unipivot,or fixed pivot)that is affecting the "flow of musical info",on a pivot of "any" type!!No matter how exotic the bearing material is....I definitely am theorizing here,but DO believe it,as one aspect/benefit of air bearing greatness.

That is "not" to say one cannot get "superb" performance from such designs,and "definitely" the "minutiae" of set up will definitely yield the "magic" we look for.....Btw,from what I have seen,many are all to easily fooled,because it is way to easy to get "good" as opposed to "great" sound.So they stop fotzing around with set up a little sooner than the "fanatics" do....

This I can understand,because of the "pain in the tush factor",with setting up to the "N'th" degree....I have been known to wear my tennis sweatbands during set ups,and I'm damn tired of it,to be honest.One reason why I "now" charge my friends two/five glasses of really good wine,for my setup services -:)

BUT, my ears tell me music is "more organic,more right" with a great air/linear design....Whether I am "thinking about" concentrating on the equipment in front of me,or not!...

For me,it's just the way it is!!

Best

I even prefer my more modest linear tracking setup (LT-30 w/ zyx cart) than the Linn LP-12 I used before it. Setup is far easier and get a much more enjoyable sound. It's all there, detail, bass, sound staging, imaging and very intmate vocals. I can't imagine moving from the linear camp.

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.

Well, I have never come across an article or study which has compared an actual pivot arm with a linear tracker with a given cartridge and how they would measure on a test record compared to each other in a lab setting. This might not be the perfect guide as far as audible performance is concerned, but it would be interesting. If somebody knows of such a study, it would be nice to post it. I wouldn't necessarily regard it is a determinant of final listening quality, but it would be interesting to read. I would imagine that there is an averaging effect based on torsional flexibility in the cartridge stylus/suspension that applies to both tangency and variable azimuth that might make differences between geometries somewhat moot. It seems that theories assume that the cartridge itself is perfectly rigid and the stylus/suspension/generator assembly is always perfect and that you can tell what it is by examining the cartridge housing. This seems to be a very flawed assumption.
The usual caveats about testimonials tend to apply
1. It's better because it's mine
2. It's better, because my buddy has an extreme system and it always sounds good to me, therefore this one thing in his system means it is better than anything else.
3. I have audiophile hearing, so I can actually filter out the effects of systems, cartridges, setups, speakers, preamps, etc. etc. to make reliable judgments about specific elements in the chain, and I can also make judgments based on audiophile memory, even if all of these chain elements are different.
Everybody seems to do this, including me, but it again makes me very skeptical that you can hear arm geometries in the very specific way that a lot of audiophiles and audio critics claim.

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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