diy tangential tonearms


I hope to have a tangential tracking tonearm one day. The available new ones cost five figures and Revox is not acceptable because of the difficulty in maintaining it and others come with turntables which threaten to be difficult to repair or rebuild. I like the turntable I have and a tangential tonearm could be installed through what appear to be three standard positioned screws which hold the present arcing tonearm in place.
The expensive tangential tonearms have air bearings which minimize any rumble from the arm sliding down its track. Other such tonearms use a servo to try to move the tonearm which can't be precise enough to do any good when the spacing between record groves varies with the amplitude of the music signal. Furthermore, air bearings will introduce the hissing sound of the air and that hissing noise is bound to be louder than any speaker noise the friction of an oil bearing might introduce. Air pumps, the dirt and filter and water condensation problems are not acceptable. From what I can find, my only way to have a tangential tonearm is to make one myself.
Does anybody have any suggestions, for instance, a set of plans I could buy for a tangential tonearm which does not require an air bearing or a servo motor drive? I have built other electronics myself which I like more than what I could buy if I could afford it. I think if I took my time machining the parts it would make a nice finishing touch to my turntable. Your ideas would be of great value to me.
128x128drbarney1

Showing 1 response by cleeds

drbarney1
The tracking error is reported to only go up to at most 2 degrees before the servo applies correction, verses 15 to 10 degrees for a pivoted tonearm.
Hmmm, I’m not aware of any pivoted arm that would have tracking error that high, except perhaps one of the "zero offset" arms. The maximum tracking error of a typical properly installed pivoted arm is on the order of plus-or-minus just a few degrees. By way of example, the SME V is spec'd with a maximum tracking error of 0.012 degrees per mm from null.