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Tracking error distortion audibility

I recently unpacked my turntable from a couple of years of storage. It still sounds very good. Several times during playback of the first few albums I literally jumped from my chair to see which track was playing as it sounded so great. After a while I realized the "great" sound was always at one of the "null" points. They seem to occur at the approximately the proper place (about 125mm from spindle) and near the lead out groove. Questions:
Is this common? I have improved the resolution of my system since the table's been in storage but I don't remember hearing this before.
All others geometric sources of alignment error not defined by the null points (VTA, azimuth etc.) are essentially constant through out the arc correct? If so they should cancel out. I assume the remedy is a linear tracking arm but I am surprised at how obviously better the sound is at these two points.
Table - AR ES-1, Arm - Sumiko MMT, Cart. - Benz Glider, Pre - Audible Illusions, Speakers - Innersound electrostatic hybrid
Do linear arms really sound as good across the whole record as I hear at only the nulls with my set-up?
feathed

Showing 1 response by swampwalker

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swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
RE: "Expensive" arc protractors- the $100 Mint has been demonstrated to my ears and many others, to provide big improvement in "dead nuts on" aligned rigs. One major advantage of a mirror-tractor over a paper protractor is parallax correction. Second advantage is very fine alignment grid which inkjet on paper cannot provide. Third is arm/table specific alignment (the mint anyways). Not saying that is your problem but even very anal and very technically proficient analog masters have found the mint at least to be very helpful. And you won't have to wait months/years like w another custom arc-tractor maker.

Also, have you tried playing w anti-skate?
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