Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site angband.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!mordor!angband!sjc From: sjc@angband.UUCP (Steve Correll) Newsgroups: net.audio Subject: Re: request for turntable recommendation Message-ID: <33@angband.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Nov-84 23:15:36 EST Article-I.D.: angband.33 Posted: Fri Nov 30 23:15:36 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 2-Dec-84 05:40:45 EST Distribution: net Organization: S-1 Project, LLNL Lines: 36 I don't own one and can't claim expertise, but I am skeptical of tangential tonearms. (I'm boycotting the term "linear" now that vendors like Dual are confusing the issue by touting "straight line" tonearms, which turn out to be conventional pivoted arms with the cartridge mounted at an angle, obviating the traditional curve in the arm). An author in Audio within the past year or so (sorry I haven't the date at hand) published the deviation from tangency required to trigger the servomechanisms on several tangential arms. He claimed that the figures weren't much less than the deviation from tangency for a well-designed pivoted arm, and they were all down in the noise compared with the sort of error you get from an imperfectly mounted cartridge. He suggested that the benefits attributed to tangential arms are due not to the elimination of tracking error, but to the reduction in arm mass, since most tangential arms are considerably shorter than pivoted ones. I wish audio manufacturers would: a) Adopt a standard cartridge mounting scheme (perhaps the P-mount?) which would guarantee correct alignment, without relying on the dealer or consumer to be conscientious with screwdrivers, protractors, overhang gauges, and shims. b) Adopt damping mechanisms like Shure's brush or various vendors' arm-damping, so that no matter what the arm mass and cartridge compliance are, the low-frequency resonance is negligible. c) Standardize the vertical tracking angle. I realize the ill effects differ, but it seems ridiculous that we go to great effort to eliminate variations from tangency on the order of a degree, while blithely ignoring the fact that vertical tracking angles vary by up to ten degrees or so among cutters and cartridges. -- --Steve Correll sjc@s1-c.ARPA, ...!decvax!decwrl!mordor!sjc, or ...!ucbvax!dual!mordor!sjc