Uni-Protractor Set tonearm alignment

Somebody has to ask. Given this debate, why are linear tracking tonearms not more popular? Is the cartridge not parallel to the groove across the whole lp?

I use a Graham Phantom.

Just asking.

I did read the vinylengine article on the VPI jig. It was hard to take it to heart because the spindle to pivot for the 10.5i is completely wrong.

He says 262mm but in reality, it is 256mm.

Perhaps it is my situation as intellectual Neanderthal, but I, for one, am willing to countenance the idea that a given tonearm design/construction may resonate differently (and therefore sound differently) if forces are applied in different ways (i.e. different offset angles than originally designed), the same way an arm may interact differently with different weight or compliance carts. This is not to say I think it would make a huge difference, but I think that given we are people who talk about getting VTF right to within a tenth of a gram, and levels matched to within a tenth of a decibel, and we change o-rings on the headshell collars, it is not too much to say that applying a LofgrenA geometry to a tonearm designed for a modified Stevenson geometry could sound differently than it would had it been designed with different angles and distances originally. I, for one, wouldn't mind hearing more if people had information, anecdotes, or theories.

Jj2468, this is a very good question. Why not playing the records the way they were cut? Due to the theroetical advantages linear trackers should dominate the market.
They do not.

First of all really good linear trackers are quite expensive, you need a precisely aligned horizontal bases to put the arm on, in most applications you need a vacuum driven guidance of the arm adding a compressor. To reach minimal friction, a precondition for linear trackers, because the cartridge moves via groove edge the total mass of the tonearm the alignment is not an easy one as one may assume.

The length of the cantilever and the compliance issue have some important impact on the interaction of tonearm and cartridge in this concept. This is with other arm concepts a little less critical, also because you have skating. With linear tracking arms you may not use all kinds of cartridges due to the friction issue which may lead to destruction of the rubber parts over time.

Taking into account all these preconditions you may reach excellent results with a linear tracker. I would not like to miss the advantages of this concept.

I, for one, wouldn't mind hearing more if people had information, anecdotes, or theories.

Hm, this is a brave idea. But it is like a walk through the Darkness without a light. Comparable with saying the word Jehova , "Prophet" or- God beware - "The Earth is round".....

The Audiophile community should be lucky to have such brave minds who do not refuse to go ahead.

Like Oscar Wilde once said:

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken"

Or like Syntax:

There are only 2 ways of sound reproduction.
Good and none.