Excuse my contrarian perspective...
The linear tracker is the superior turntable - potentially.
First it needs to be running right, working properly (like any turntable) - then you are limited by the cartridges - so lets take a look at that limitation:
P-mount is a little constraining, in that no one is making new p-mount TT's anymore, so it is a bit of an orphan cartridge format.
But - there are a heap of excellent and top of the line cartridges available from the 80's - and because it is an Orphan format... and people like the other posters on here so far keep dissing it .. you can pick up some truly great p-mount cartridges cheaply.
Some examples:
Audio Techica - the entire AT150/140/440/130/120 range was replicated in p-mount with cartridges like the AT152LP & AT152MLP, AT142, AT132 etc....
The high end Audio Technica sub-brand Signet also had their versions of the same line (interchangeable needles across all of these) - the TK6Ep, TK4Ep...
So you can get a cartridge body from fleabay for under $20, and fit anything up to a AT150MLx stylus to it (Stylus price range $10 to $250) - the top styli would give you the equivalent of an AT150MLx for around $200 (half the price of a new AT150MLx!)
AT have also had their "213" stylus range around for years, you can find them as the AT92 or the AT3472 or AT3003/4004/6006/8008 you find them under other brand names as well, and with a range of different model numbers. They are a basic but high quality generator/body, and again you can get anything from a conical stylus for them, through to an exotic MicroLine (conical from anywhere less than $10, or $20 for the whole cartridge+stylus - ML stylus from LPgear for around $140) - In between you can get elipticals, hyperelipticals and shibatas.... with cost rising accordingly.
Ortofon - provided (and still provides!) the p-mount version of their excellent OM range - get a cartridge body on fleabay - and you can fit any of the OM series styli to it OM5/10/14/20/30/40
The styli aren't cheap at the top end, but again you can have a true TOTL cartridge on your p-mount and it will usually cost you less than the equivalent 1/2" mount! - OM40 = 2m Black, OM30 = 2M Bronze in each case you can do it for about 1/2 the price.
Digitrac - another brand no longer in existence, the cartridges and styli were OEM'd by Ortofon, a Digitrac 300SE is in effect an OM30 - but it costs less than $150 - which is an incredible deal.
You can even get an SE stylus ($80) and fit it to an Ortofon OM body - but it does require very minor plastic surgery - as there is a little plastic Tab designed to stop you doing this very thing as it would have eaten into Ortofon's profits...
My OM-SE hybrid is a great sounding cartridge
Ortofon also have the 320u - the body is the same as used in the 510/530/540 series (also known as Vinyl Master in Germany) - with a Fineline stylus - speakerbits on ebay.com.au have sold quite a few of these at $40 (!!!!) - another steal! - it can be upgraded by fitting upper end styli like the 540 - but its own Fineline stylus is already superb, and normal retail pricing for these tends to be circa $150.
Shure - Shure has since the early 70's had equivalents to their M and V15 range in p-mount. I picked up a Shure 1000e (late 80's equivalent to the M110HE) for $10 and then purchased a Jico SAS stylus for it ($130... prices have since risen - now $170) - the result is a truly stunning combination.
You can read up on the Shure M97xE cartridge on various threads - the M series P-mount cartridges are the same cartridge, and can take the same styli even with the damping brush (you need to check as some of the styli have plastic tabs designed to limit which bodies they fit onto - but there is lots of flexibility) - Best styli seem to be no longer the Shure but the Jico styli, as Shure's own quality control has been slipping the last 10 years or so.
If you want to go unashamedly top end, you need to find a p-mount V15 cartridge. The V15Vp is still available at LPgear (at a price!) - I picked one up recently on fleabay for $75 - the stylus for it will set you back between $130 and $200 you can fit an original Shure HE stylus (excellent) from LPGear for around $180, or a Jico SAS with the Damper brush for $170 (Jico also have a MicroRidge version a slight step down for $140)
The V15V being one of the alltime greats - and you can fit it to a p-mount.
Shure still have the M92 available new - the stylus is a little ordinary - but as per above you can always upgrade that - and all the way to the SAS - as I have done with the 1000e.
ADC when they were still in analogue made the PSX range of p-mounts - they tend to go for resonable $ online - and the PSX40 (TOTL in that range) has a great reputation (don't have one so I cannot say much more about it)
Technics - technics was the inventor of the p-mount, they intended it to replace the 1/2" mount and put serious effort into it - their TOTL EPC100 cartridges were available as p-mounts.... if you can find one (very rare) and are willing to pay the price ($600+?) they are arguably one of the best cartridges ever made - bare none.
Coming down to earth you can pick up an EPC-P202/P23/24/28/30/33/58/158 for a song on fleabay without a stylus - with stylus some of these can be quite pricey.... the P202 had a boron cantilever and was a superb cartridge - second only to the two technics cartridges above it in the range, the 205 and 100 (all available in p-mount)
Jico is the best source of styli for these - with eliptical styli starting at around $30, and SAS styli at around $130. - You can take one of these from "nice cartridge" to "Jaw dropper".
In Moving Coils it gets a bit harder - there were p-mount moving coils, but they are rare and hard to find, they also tend to fetch top dollar as the p-mount fans fight over them!
One mode that I have and is excellent is the Sony XL-MC104 - again a TOTL model in its day, from a time when Sony was at the very top of TT technology.... and there is a seller in Canada with stock of them going at around $100 (great deal) - I grabbed one and a spare needle - they sort of have exchangeable needles... actually a complete cartridge in a plug in module that then plugs into the p-mount body, which in turn plugs into the p-mount on the arm...strange but true - and it works very well.
Ortofon also made an MC200 and MC100 in p-mount form, and the MC100 was also available from Empire as (I think ) an MC10p - I was bidding on one of those a couple of months back but it went too high for me!
I have by no means covered all the options - I have not even covered all the p-mount types I have in my collection.
I think a very good case can be made that p-mount is NOT a constraint.
I would also like to remind all and sundry, that just because an arm has a 1/2" mount, doesn't mean that it will suit all cartridges.
The mass of the arm, will determine which cartridges it will mate with best (low mass arm - high compliance cartridges, high mass arm-low compliance cartridges). And once you start parring down the marketplace, by specifying the arm parameters, the market is not quite as wide open as one would think!
With p-mounts the arm parameters, and the cartridge compliance requirements were all built into the specification - it was designed to make life easy! - So with a reasonable degree of confidence, you can usually fit any p-mount cartridge to any p-mount arm without needing to know a thing about compliance and arm mass - they will be suitable.
Some cartridges were not 100% compliant, and might require adjustment of the balance (cartridge is heavier or lighter than the 6g spec) and the vertical tracking force (requires more or less than the standard 1.25g VTF) - but that is the limit of variability.
Finally it is worth considering the benefits of a linear tracking turntable.
Assuming it is properly engineered (which I believe the Sony is!) - then you have eliminated a whole category of distortion related to cartridge alignment with the groove.
There are numerous threads on here about how to optimise a cartridges alignment using stephenson or Baerwald or Lofgrenn setups - all of these, in fact all pivoting arm setups have two null points on a record where alignment distortion is Zero (null hence the null points) - at these points and the few seconds (minute? 2 Minutes?) before and after them, a pivoted arm has the same level of tracking distortion as a Linear tracker has throughout the entire record !
So not only do you eliminate an entire category of distortion (how many times do you hear people talk about "inner track sibilance"..... doesn't exist on a LT TT) - but you also eliminate all the messing about with alignment protractors, and the time and effort involved in getting things right so as to minimise that inherent distortion.
(Longer arms do lessen it, which is why the top end pivoted TT's have 12" arms and sometimes longer)
Have a read and ask for advice on the Japanese Linear tracking thread - lots of help to be found there.
Many of us LT fans also have pivoted arm turntables - so we enjoy both flavours (variety is the spice of life) - I run a Linear tracking Revox B795 and a pivoted 10" arm JVC QL-Y5F.
The Revox LT is the better TT.... and I fitted it with a p-mount adapter to make swapping cartridge easier. (the base arm is standard 1/2" cartridge mount)
bye for now
David
