What happened to linear tracking?

[SA-708]

I can't recall the last time I dropped the needle somewhere other than the lead-in track of a record. I tend to listen to a side at a time. That said, I have recently been listening to some odd-sized records (9", 10" and 11") and found placing the needle on the lead-in track using my Technics SL-M3 (only set up for 7" and 12") to be less than simple.

This massive Technics p-mount linear tracker may not meet everyone's needs, but with a very few exceptions, it meets my needs, and that's what matters since it is my turntable.

 

[Nat]

As I said, I think the response to how the arm is cued up is a personal one, but given that turntables are probably the most interactive component, it's an important factor in whether tables work well for us or not. (What we think of suspended subchassis is another intensely idiosyncratic issue, but for a different thread.)

 

[RobRoy]

5. And it's a complex solution to a problem that isn't really a problem.

A very interesting paper on VE, "digital simulation of tracking distortion" shows convincingly that the distortion introduced by the tracking error on your typical 9" arm should be below audibility and way below the other distortions introduced by the pickup/stylus/cantilever, not to mention the distortions introduced by the speakers!!

I think this should be the official thread killer post.

But that's just me.

 

[RobRoy]

This may or may not be true in practice, but I've got a problem with it from a theoretical point of view. I think distortion compounds itself. The statement that "the distortion introduced by the tracking error...should be below audibility and way below the other distortions introduced by the pickup/stylus/cantilever, not to mention the distortions introduced by the speakers..." implies that only the worst distortion offender in the chain is significant, and lesser contributors don't matter. Taken to an extreme, let's say the speakers have 2% THD. Then it supposedly wouldn't matter if the amplifier had 1.9% THD, the preamp another 1.9%, the turntable yet another 1.9%... get my point? I think that not only do the distortion components add, anything distorted early in the chain gets distorted yet again by every signal processing stage that follows. From that point of view it makes sense to try to absolutely minimize the distortion at the source first, with every succeeding stage being of *slightly* lesser importance.

All that said, I have both linear and pivoting tonearms in my system. I prefer the linear tracker for a number of reasons, but I don't detect any difference in distortion between the two. My system is decent, but there are certainly far more resolving systems that might make differences more audible.

In my career (business IT) it's all about risk mitigation and cost/benefit analysis. If something will improve quality 20% and costs "n" while something else will improve quality 2% and will cost "n x 4, the former will be developed. The latter will be put on the shelf.

That being said, if something can increase the marketability without really improving things that much, the same formula may favor it. And linear tracking was really cool!

 

[JohnVF]

In my career (business IT) it's all about risk mitigation and cost/benefit analysis. If something will improve quality 20% and costs "n" while something else will improve quality 2% and will cost "n x 4, the former will be developed. The latter will be put on the shelf.

That being said, if something can increase the marketability without really improving things that much, the same formula may favor it. And linear tracking was really cool!

The shrinking of the turntable market might have also made the high cost of the LT machines unacceptable from a scale perspective. And the technology itself may have been totally out of reach of the boutique companies that filled the void when the major players retired from making top-flight turntables.

 

[RobRoy]

The shrinking of the turntable market might have also made the high cost of the LT machines unacceptable from a scale perspective. And the technology itself may have been totally out of reach of the boutique companies that filled the void when the major players retired from making top-flight turntables.

I think that is probably the most important part here. This thread sort of reminds me of the 8-track threads.

Imagine a parallel reality where the cassette deck was never invented. Imagine where 8-track might have gone had it had a couple of decades in the limelight.

 

[flavio81]

The speaker distortion/mask fallacy would pretty much even negate the need to set up a cartridge. There is no way you'd hear changes in VTA or even slight tracking errors if nothing below the speaker's distortion level mattered.

Dear John, you are 100% correct, but my point is that the distortion introduced by tracking angle error _ON A CORRECTLY SET UP PIVOTED ARM_ is below audibility.

Do a bad alignment and it will be readily audible.

I agree with you in that we should try to remove ALL elements that introduce distortion. The problem IMHO is that to create a good Linear tracking arm there are some other compromises to be made that could also introduce detriments to the sound quality. Excessive horizontal arm mass, for example; or lack of a rigid coupling between turntable bearing and arm pivot.

 

[RobRoy]

Dear John, you are 100% correct, but my point is that the distortion introduced by tracking angle error _ON A CORRECTLY SET UP PIVOTED ARM_ is below audibility.

Do a bad alignment and it will be readily audible.

I agree with you in that we should try to remove ALL elements that introduce distortion. The problem IMHO is that to create a good Linear tracking arm there are some other compromises to be made that could also introduce detriments to the sound quality. Excessive horizontal arm mass, for example; or lack of a rigid coupling between turntable bearing and arm pivot.

Some would argue the best fishin' pole is a simple bamboo pole. Sometimes we just need to step back from the coolaid and get back to basics and why we're doing what we're doing.

 

[Pio1980]

I think this should be the official thread killer post.

But that's just me.

And yet no one has put forth the Rabinow and Codier research advocating a radial linear tracking approach.

 

[JohnVF]

Dear John, you are 100% correct, but my point is that the distortion introduced by tracking angle error _ON A CORRECTLY SET UP PIVOTED ARM_ is below audibility.

Do a bad alignment and it will be readily audible.

I agree with you in that we should try to remove ALL elements that introduce distortion. The problem IMHO is that to create a good Linear tracking arm there are some other compromises to be made that could also introduce detriments to the sound quality. Excessive horizontal arm mass, for example; or lack of a rigid coupling between turntable bearing and arm pivot.

I use both types. I run two pivot arm tables and one LT. My point isn't that one is superior- its that Linear Tracking works quite well. There are a lot of things that 'may' be detriments to sound quality. But in practice, I don't hear them. Not on this table, at least. I will even say that it sounds cleaner than either of my other tables- it sounds more "CD like". Which I think would be a huge turnoff to a lot of vinyl fanatics, and maybe it was. I know that i've read a couple of remarks here or elsewhere that said that somebody couldn't tell two different carts apart on an LT, thinking it was masking the difference. Perhaps the tracking was actually what was setting the carts apart, and taking that out of the equation made them both function identically? I know that I have gotten excellent results from some pretty humble carts on my LT.

 

[Ken Boyd]

How do you have a simple fact, than them state IMO? An opinion is just that an opinion, not a fact, and a fact is not an opinoin.

 

[goodolpg]

I like my Technics SL-QL1. Tracks with hardly any surface noise.

Me too!
I bought my SL-QL1 new in 1983.
I don't use it much as I prefer (gasp!) cd's and their ease of use and changing songs.
But a few times a year I'll play a record or two just to keep the SL-QL1 "loosened up" and running smooth.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

There are people who don't believe in Linear Tracking, broadcasters and disc mastering engineers. These people don't subscribe to gadgetry or inferior gear. I do both, so tend to do things the studio way. My ATP 16-T has minimal tracking error as does the equally correctly setup SME 3012 tonearm on the Neumann lathe. No such thing as Zero tracking error on playback. Never. So, low tracking error is what we get in real life. So, the best setup pivoted and linear arms equate to a draw.

 

[lico]

I dunno about all the specs and arguments (both pro and con for linear trackers) - but if I could buy a new Technics SL-5 today, I'd be buying.

Great features/engineering went into that deck (quartz lock, direct drive, full automatic) - and it was BOTL. Too bad nobody makes something new like it anymore. My SL-5 reminds me of a big CD player, but I can put my records in into it instead

These days, if you're shopping for a new turntable (and I'm talking what most consumers would go after - not high end audiophile types), the options are limited. You can have your choice of three very similar belt drive manual decks that look pretty I guess. TT technology took a 30 year step backwards in my opinion.

 

[goldear]

Personally while linear tracking arms are ideal in theory, making these work really well in practice has always been much more difficult. At their best, linear tracking arms can be superb. But most LT arms are far from ideal. IMO other aspects of arm's quality impact an arm's performance more than does being a linear tracker or not. So for me. I'd rather have a superb regular arm than a mediocre linear tracker.

 

[JohnVF]

These days, if you're shopping for a new turntable (and I'm talking what most consumers would go after - not high end audiophile types), the options are limited. You can have your choice of three very similar belt drive manual decks that look pretty I guess. TT technology took a 30 year step backwards in my opinion.

Your opinion of the current state of turntables assumes that quality turntables were at some point cheap to purchase. I don't know that they were. People have just gotten accustomed to not paying more than Walmart prices for anything, and they've forgotten that there was a point in time when, yes, things were very well made, but they were also still quite expensive.

 

[lico]

Actually, I think quality turntables were pretty cheap to purchase. I'm not talking about the high end marketed stuff, just what the average consumer could buy that was pretty decent.

MSRP of the SL-5 in 1982 was $200, it probably could have been had for $150. Works out to around $350 in today's dollars.

They'd sell like hotcakes these days if you could buy one new

 

[lico]

Personally while linear tracking arms are ideal in theory, making these work really well in practice has always been much more difficult. At their best, linear tracking arms can be superb. But most LT arms are far from ideal. IMO other aspects of arm's quality impact an arm's performance more than does being a linear tracker or not. So for me. I'd rather have a superb regular arm than a mediocre linear tracker.

IME - Linear trackers don't pick up vibrations when your speakers are too close to the turntable because of arm resonance, you can stomp your feet around the room and they tend not to skip, you can mount a cartridge on them and never have to align it, and they don't distort the music on the inner grooves.

These are all things perhaps not up to the high end standards of those who know the most in this hobby, but there are practical aspects a LT turntable offers in some setups that a lot of people have to end up dealing with using a pivot arm table.

 

[flavio81]

IME - Linear trackers don't pick up vibrations when your speakers are too close to the turntable because of arm resonance, you can stomp your feet around the room and they tend not to skip, you can mount a cartridge on them and never have to align it, and they don't distort the music on the inner grooves. .

The claims above are misleading and incorrect.

Sound isolation and arm resonances are independent of if the arm is pivoted or LT.

Inner groove distortion can be caused by many factors, having the cartridge perfectly tangential to the groove is not enough.

 

[JohnVF]

Actually, I think quality turntables were pretty cheap to purchase. I'm not talking about the high end marketed stuff, just what the average consumer could buy that was pretty decent.

MSRP of the SL-5 in 1982 was $200, it probably could have been had for $150. Works out to around $350 in today's dollars.

They'd sell like hotcakes these days if you could buy one new

Until quite recently you could get a SL-1200 for not much more than that. Some of the Music Hall tables aren't much more than that, and they're about as well built as the SL-5, which I don't consider to be all that special in comparison to today's tables at or near that price. But what I'm getting at is that the average consumer simply invested more in their hi fi back then. It wasn't uncommon to find pretty decent gear in the average home. Today, its a rarity. And so, the market has changed accordingly. That same small market is automatically going to limit how much low-cost gear is going to be available. Not just turntables. The cost of manufacturer, distribution, R&D, tooling, gets spread out among fewer buyers. So cost goes up.