[Scott Dorsey]

wrote:

Linear arm turntables, like the Revox and Rabcos will have less
distortion on the inner tracks........

YEP

It's not as big a win as you might think. With a conventional turntable,
the zenith angle changes between the outer grooves and the inner grooves,
but the actual error on the outer grooves is as bad as on the inner ones.

Yes, the zenith error is a source of distortion, but the REAL problem is
the lower linear velocity at the center of the disc, which may be a tenth
that of the velocity on the outer edge.

The linear arm systems vary a lot. The servo-controlled ones always seem
to have weird rumbling and bumping sounds from the servo moving the arm
back and forth. Folks in the seventies didn't care so much but today we're
likely to have better low end extension and so it can be a big issue.

My ex's husband used an Eminent technology air bearing arm for years, and
it didn't have any of the rumble issues of the servo units and was very
clean-sounding, but I honestly don't think the tracking on inner grooves
was audibly any better than my old SME arm.

It was a subtle thing but I always liked the first cut one each side the best, and the last cut the least.
Then i found out why.

the tracking distortion on the inner most tracks which were also usually the loudest, is one of the "features" I am most happy to be rid of.

If the inner track is the loudest, the producer and mastering engineer should
be ashamed of themselves. Always put something quiet without a lot of high
end on the inner track. I know with classical music this isn't always
possible, but with rock albums it's not a big deal. (With classical music
you can always just leave the last couple inches blank and make the record
a twofer).
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."