Linear Tracking Turntables - Best??

Go pivot arm for ease and maintenance. There's a trade off between the music virtues and good looks of linear tracking setups and pivot arms. I concur with Slugo's points from personal experience (except the Rockport of course). I had a Goldmund Studio with a 3F arm for many years. It produced beautiful music and it was fairly easy to maintain if you kept the VTA constant. Changing the VTA meant tweaking other things to get it sound just right. Pivot arms such as Graham 2.2's or Triplainer's allow for very easy tiny adjustments for each record thus producing a better chance of getting the music right for more records more often with less fuss. My current set up is Basis 2500/Graham 2.0 and Koetsu Onyx Platinum - just so you know my bias. Still, I wish I had kept that Goldmund - it was outstanding. I know my perfectly maintained Goldmund was a steal for the buyer. You might find one like that for you.

Right Gerry, changing VTA on the Goldmund was an absolute bitch, which bugged me so much, that I had it modified to be operated by remote control from my listening position. Since then I'm spoilt. Don't mean to show off, just wanted to say that it is a worthwhile tweak. It takes some good mechanical engineering however.

Yamaha px-3. I own one! after years of pivoted arms and high end turntables and tweaking I bought one of these used...slapped on an old grado magnetic and ummmm...should it sound this good?...no head shell alignment...as it tracks linearly!...no anti skating adjustment!...buttons to select Lp or 45 to start at beginning of album so no manual setting down of arm!....why did I wait soooooo long. Anyone who thinks that you have to tweak this thing is sadly mistaken! It just works and sounds good...Isn't that what lets us enjoy the music a little bit more.

Pioneer PL-L1000. Unique silent tonearm drive, excellent DD motor, simple to set up (some need to have the optical sensor tweaked, but this is doable).

for the money, a used maplenoll ariadne signature or reference is one of the best linear tracking tables around. I know i am biased about the tables but once set up and tuned, they are not fussy and produce beautiful music when pair with a good cartrridge and downstream equipment. they are very heavy, tough to initially set up due to the weight and delicate teflon bushing in the air bearing platter.Air setup is another critical variable that once set up right will be pretty easy to maintain. I currently use an apollo and ariadne signature setups and have been very pleased with both of them