[net.audio] request for turntable recommendation

sjc@angband.UUCP (Steve Correll) (12/01/84)

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

herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong, Computing Services) (12/02/84)

For what its worth, The Absolute Sound uses a Yamaha PX-2 tangential
tracker as its reference turntable for evaluating cartridges and turntable
accessories.  They feel it is almost in the league of Linn Sondek and Oracle
(not to mention Ariston) with all the advantages of a direct-drive fully-
automatic turntable.

-- 
Herb Chong...

I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....

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greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) (12/04/84)

This is a footnote to Herb Chong's message about Absolute Sound
using the Yamaha PX-2 as a reference.  I think it needs to be
mentioned that, at least according to the last reference in
Absolute Sound on this table, their "reference" version was
quite heavily modified, even to the extent of replacing the
actual arm tube.  The first review they supplied of the table
was downright unfavorable, but the later comments describing
their use of it as a reference were by no means specific enough
as to the modifications that resulted in their upgrading their
opinion of the table so as to allow someone buying the table
new to match the performance they got from it.  In a later
turntable rating, the Yamaha wasn't even mentioned (perhaps
because it has apparently been dropped from production) whereas
the Linn-Sondeck, Oracle, Sota and (top-rated) Goldmund were.

	- Greg Paley