Linear Tracking Turntables.
I have two. The conversion is complete.
I wonder why people who do not know why a thing is tried or done the way it is must make up some strange ideas to fill in the blanks. I was just reading up on the state of knowledge and awareness of LT TTs out in the internoise. Oh boy! Lots of noise, little fact.
Some were saying LT TTs are the best. Some were saying they damaged records. Some said you could not use different pickups or had to use specific brands. Bits of truth in there occasionally. Some were hilariously wrong.
What was agreed was that when vinyl LPs went extinct the market for these things collapsed.
A linear tracking tonearm runs laterally straight across the record. When a master record is cut on the lathe the cutting head moves straight across in the same fashion.
The idea is that you are getting the information off with the precise geometry that was used to put it there. Seems like a good idea. The pickup is tangent to the groove everywhere ideally.
In an ideal conventional pivoting arm the tonearm swings across the record and is tangent in only two spots. Everywhere else it is twisted out of alignment. The error is not great, but it happens.
Another factor is that a pivoting arm is drawn towards the center of the record by the friction of the stylus and the offset of the pivot to the tangent line. The stylus leans on one side of the groove. That is the "skating effect" that the anti-skating device is used to counteract. The skating effect varies with the friction which varies with the sound intensity and the phase of the moon. Bottom line if you get the anti-skating adjusted really well it is at best a compromise. I know I tried for years to get that right with my pivoting arms. If that factor is off it changes the sound.
So two things that pivoting arms have trouble with. The same two things do not happen at all in the ideal LT TT. Note I said Ideal.
So to it! I have two such machines. They offer radically different solutions, and both work really well.
My Harman Kardon ST5 has a purely mechanical solution. It is really very elegant if you like that sort of thing (I do!) The arm that holds the pickup can pivot a bit and rides on a carrier that has a little idler wheel on it that in turn rides on a rotating shaft. There is a small angle between them so the carrier is dragged laterally by this angle sort of like a sail boat tacking in the wind. As the arm pivots the angle changes. If the arm is pulled toward the center the little wheel pulls the carrier faster. Pulled the other way and it slows or reverses. It is a very simple and effective mechanical feed back.
The HK ST5 can hold and play any phono pick up that mounts with two screws like 90% of them do.
My Phase Linear TT which is really a Pioneer PL 1000a uses fancy electro mechanics to do the job. The arm mounts on a carrier and it too can pivot. As it moves right or left that is detected by a light sensor that sends a signal to a linear induction motor that moves the carrier in response. Mechanically simple, electrically not so much, but effective.
It too can use any standard phono pick up. It also has a standard cartridge head shell so you can swap out pick ups in under a minute.
There are a reasonable number of these types of turntable. They all were purpose built with integrated linear tracking arms. I think all but one were Japanese. Yamaha made some as did Mitsubishi, Technics and others I cannot recall right now. They are all, lets call it "high end". Expensive in the day and usually built as a statement of the company's capabilities.
Some did it very well others did it better. Harman Kardon was the outlier and was built in the USA. The arm and its function were really good. The basic turntable needs tweaks to bring it into the high end. Frankly HK should have done better. All of these units let you use whatever pickup you want to.
There is another to discuss. Bang & Olufsen made a number of turntables in Denmark. All of those could only be used with B&O custom pickups. The advantage is they were well matched and some of those were very very good. They made both pivoting arms and LT. They are beautiful and functional. The better ones are true high end. I see them for sale occasionally and get twitchy.
B&O stopped making the pickups years ago, but another company took up the work and make exceptional products with a broad range of price. If you join that club it may cost you.
These "good ones" reduce and may completely eliminate the tracking angle error and they all are very effective at killing the skating force problem. I think the latter is the best advantage. You do hear things and they are better. Incorrect skating force will make an LP sound off and can deflect the stylus laterally and maybe out of its ideal performance range.
In a pivoting tone arm you can hear when the anti-skate is dialed in. It is better when it works. Simply not a problem with linears.
There are others out there and those are less than high end usually. The selection is rather large. If you search online for Linear Tracking Turntables most of the hits will be one of those. They are very compact and use what is called a P mount pickup. There are many of the P mount type available, but it is not the "normal" type. Still you have a selection to choose from and they offer some of the LT TT advantages.
Do they hurt records. NO! There are many pickups that may hurt LPs but they are not unique to linears. If you take care with your software fear not!
Do they sound better? I think yes. My Phazer sounds better than my recently departed Sony 2251. It is high end and was close to SOTA in the late 70s. (I was there do not quibble)
Finally there are a few linear tracking tone arms out in the market. They can be mounted on most any turntable even boutiques. Some of them use air bearings but depend on the tiny stylus to provide the force to overcome the mass of the carrier and arm. I do not like that, but it can work. Others use gears and belts and motors and pulleys. Many things can be made to work.
If you get a good linear tracking set up it is a better way to go.
