As I remember it, the first significant stab at a "linear tracking" tonearm was the one fitted to the 1973 Garrard Zero-100 turntable. This was basically a conventional pivoting tonearm, but with a cantilever meachanism which rotated the headshell as it tracked across the LP, theoretically correcting the tracking error in the process. The arm was made of plastic, and the 'table was idler driven. Needless to say, it sounded pretty awful. The B&O came out a couple of years later and was a commercial success, if not a compelling audiophile performer.
I believe that the biggest obstacle to a satisfactory affordable linear tracking design is the lack of a simple mechanism to drive the arm along its linear bearing. It seems to me that this is where the costs of producing the existing molto expensivo designs builds from.
FWIW, I would expect that above a certain performance level, a linear tracking arm would indeed offer the potential for further sonic improvements. I say this by employing an arm-waving argument that says the geometric magnitude of linear tracking errors is potentially larger than the geometric correction applied by VTA adjustments, etc.
I believe that the biggest obstacle to a satisfactory affordable linear tracking design is the lack of a simple mechanism to drive the arm along its linear bearing. It seems to me that this is where the costs of producing the existing molto expensivo designs builds from.
FWIW, I would expect that above a certain performance level, a linear tracking arm would indeed offer the potential for further sonic improvements. I say this by employing an arm-waving argument that says the geometric magnitude of linear tracking errors is potentially larger than the geometric correction applied by VTA adjustments, etc.