My Innovation Wood w/ Linear Arm (recently sold to a fellow AA’r)

https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...1&d=1430233456

I recently set up a ClearAudio Innovation with the TT3 arm. That arm is fussy to setup and I’m afraid it will be fussy to maintain. But all in all it sounded great when finished.

Attachment 57191

I have always been a bit hesitant toward linear tracking arms. Do you know how the sound of the TT3 compares to ClearAudio's Universal arm? is there a worthwhile difference?

I have never heard the Universal arm. Hopefully someone else with more experience will chime in.

That looks like the new TT-5, not the TT-3. Man, those tables looks stunning in any color configuration - but the all-black is very, very cool!

Though I have and very much like my Universal 12", unfortunately I haven't yet heard any of the linear trackers.

I’ve got the Universal 9” in the shop but switching to the TT3 - waiting for the custom order. Let you know what I think :)

My bad, you are correct that is the TT-5

This is a really interesting topic. I’ve used the Rabco arm and still have a B&O 4004 linear tracker but my 12” unipivot is working really well and sounds great......but I always liked the concept of linear tracking arms.

I’m very interested in your comparisons of the two!

Linear trackers theoretically eliminate the geometry problems of a pivoted arm which is only correct at the two null points and there is a lot of religion around which is the best geometry.

Linear arms eliminate this problem and also eliminate the offset angle and by doing so eliminate skating forces. That’s pretty neat.

However they raise their own set of problems. The short arm tube of a linear tracker has much higher sensitivity to changes in record thickness and resulting changes in VTA.

Most linear tracking arms have significantly higher mass in the horizontal plane than regular pivoting arms, and different mass in the horizontal and vertical planes. So compatibility with the compliance of some cartridges could be an issue. This greater horizontal mass can also mean greater deflection of the cartridge’s cantilever. Again, some cartridges will handle this better than others. The servo system used by B&O and others eliminates this issue to a great degree.

One thing I noticed with the Rabco and B&O arms is the record sounds the same at the beginning, middle, and end.

Tom

Thanks! I also have a 9" Universal and would be very interested.

You are ever so right, my TT2 is very beefy/heavy.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/22...g?v=1522199346