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.
drbarney1

Showing 2 responses by millercarbon

See if you can spot where things go wrong:
With the pivoted tonearm a typical tracking error causes one side of the needle to delay on the order of about 0.25 milliseconds which at the speed of sound of 1000 feet per second (the acoustic speed outdoors on a cold winter day) this is equivalent to one speaker being 3 inches further away than the other But with two ears is this significant, 

Got it? No? Could it maybe be....
tracking error causes one side of the needle to delay on the order of about 0.25 milliseconds 
Delay .25ms compared to.... what? I don't think its the other side. The needle does not delay at all. It keeps right on moving the whole time.



I hope to have a tangential tracking tonearm one day.


"Have"? Or build?