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Top linear trackers

I’m in the market soon for a linear tracking tonearm. Two in particular have piqued my interest, the Kuzma Airline with damping trough and the Bergmann Odin. From what I can tell, these designs have especially benefited from lessons learned during the evolution of linear tracking, incorporating features like longish tonearms to minimize warp wow, ultra low friction, low air turbulence, and mitigation of the high horizontal mass issue by use of a damping trough (not sure of the Odin on that). The Odin is known to have a very quiet pump. The lift on the Kuzma may be easier to operate. I would love to hear from anyone with long term experience with these arms or comparable other ones. I would be mounting this on my current VPI Classic 4 and most likely using my Soundsmith Sussoro Mark 2 ES. That cartridge should work with either arm based on the resonance calculations. Down the road I may consider moving the arm to a Sota Cosmos Eclipse or a Technics custom SP10R or another high value setup. I cannot afford the Bergmann Galder with Odin. If I could I probably would have reached the end of my journey.
earthtones

Showing 1 response by terry9

terry9
2,354 posts
 

It seems to me that the biggest strengths of the Terminator are:

1. adjustability - everything is adjustable. All adjustments are intuitive. VTA and horizontality can be done on the fly. I would wish for more accurate adjustment of tangentiality, but no linear tracker is any better; I think. Azimuth is very precisely adjustable, but fiddly.

2. tweakability - It is easy to increase mass. It is easy to increase damping. It is easy to install a new wand, and not that complex to design one. It is a simple matter to build a second tower to support the other end of the beam, and incorporate a fine adjustment of horizontality. But this sacrifices easily adjustable VTA.

Likewise the greatest weakness seems to have been missed: vertical movement is allowed by two pivot screws which are set into two 90 degree vee’s. This junction is not inherently stable, but it’s stable enough for most records.

Conclusion: I own two, and consider them the best bargain in high end. One is on a Nottingham Analogue Mentor (updated to Dais standards), the other on a DIY air bearing which features an air cushion in all 3 dimensions. I’m hoping my DIY linear tracker will solve the T’s problems without introducing new ones, but hey, that’s DIY for you.

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