Why Linear Tracking never took off?

The Garrard Zero 100 got undeserved bad press and was often unfairly maligned - it's a little hard to understand why because it was a leader in much more than just zero tracking error.

It had:

an all-metal sub chassis suspended on foam cushioned coils.

a 5lb, hand balanced, cast aluminum, belt driven (not rim driven) platter running on an inverted, hardened single ball main bearing with the bearing situated at the center of gravity of the platter.

a balanced, synchronous motor so quiet and vibration free that, although independantly suspended, could probably run hard mounted to the sub-chassis without intruding.

a machined aluminum (not plastic) double rectangular (larger on smaller) section low mass tone-arm, articulated to track at zero error across the full width of the record. The cantilever was a thin (2 mm) aluminum tube that added about 2 grams to the overall mass of the arm.

and magnetic anti-skate with graduated scales for both conical and eliptical stylii. The amount of antiskate force applied automatically reduced as the arm tracked across the record.

I bought a Zero 100SB new in 1973 and have been using it ever since. I also own a Rega Planar 3/RB300, a Thorens 125/Rabco SL8E and Linn LP12/SME 3012. I'm a bit of a collector of TT classics and have a few more non-working examples under the bench waiting to join the ranks. I love all these turntables and can say without fear or favour that the Garrard holds its own in performance with the others and is way out in front in terms of character. It certainly deserves its place in this little collection of classics.

The main problems with the Zero 100 were marketing ones rather than performance. It had a clunky, noisy auto return mechanism that looked and sounded cheap and nasty in operation and a plastic headshell that had a non-locking slide out cartridge carrier that looked like it should be a performance weak point, but, in practice, turns out not to be. The auto return mechanism has no connection to the arm when not in use so its operation in no way affects the quality of the arm's performance and it still works today in exactly the same cheap and nasty, clunky, noisy, efficient way that it did in 1973.

If Garrard had incorporated a classier auto return mechanism, a single piece headshell and had charged significantly more for the turntable it would probably have had an easier ride into the high end where it belongs.

Tassiemike, Thanks for the perspective on the Zero 100. I remember looking at one back in the 70s, before I knew anything about hifi. I was intrigued by the nifty solution that the articulating cantilever design provided for linear tracking. I recall the salesman badmouthed it, disparaging the design by claiming the cantilever assembly added too much mass and the extra pivots added too much friction and had too much play to provide satisfactory stability. The clincher was the unrefined auto return mechanism you mentioned, which turned me off as soon as he operated it. I got a Benjamin Miracord Elac 50H instead (still have it!). I'm glad to learn the real story on the Zero 100 from you, after all these years.

Hey James that's a pleasure, I probably paint it as better than it really is, but after 30 years it's still a favourite and I still use it as a serious source.

I love vinyl and a big part of that is the character of the ritual that is such a huge part of pulling the music from the medium. The question of why is vinyl better than digital is often asked and the answers invariably involve warmth, presence, vibrancy and many other terms that describe that unique vinyl mood. I agree with all of that that and those are my reasons too, but a much bigger reason is the connection to the medium that is obtained through the ritual of playing vinyl. No other medium involves such a complex set of proceures before you get to listen to the music, and performing the ritual is so familiar and comfortable. And even after the preparation it doesn't stop - if it's not quite right, you can flavour it a bit by adding a little weight or reducing the VTA. I'm sorry, but chucking a cd into the player and pressing 'Go' is such an anti-climax after years of careful preparation of turntable and record, and what you end up with from a cd is the sound engineer's mix with no chance of influence other than that available through the pre-amp. It might be accurate, but sometimes it's not appropriate.

To come back to the Garrard (no I hadn't forgotten the reason for the post), the fact is that the Garrard was an innovative machine in its time, but I love it because its eccentric character absolutely compliments my love of playing vinyl.

Sorry for the rant, I'm not sure where that came from, especially considering that I'm preaching to the converted - but at least it's out now and I won't have to do it again.

ps. I knew little of hifi in those days also and bought the Garrard for the same reasons that you were intrigued by it. I was uneducated enough not to know that an essential element of 70s hifi turntables was absolute minimalism, and so, also uninfluenced by a helpful salesman, I proceded with the purchase. The innovations of the Garrard were revealed to me as I slowly learned how the music got from the record to me.

AC: I own a Maplenoll Reference that was purchased in the early 1990's. This air bearing table and tonearm can be significantly upgraded to a point whereby it can complete with almost any combo.Air contol is the key as is a slew of simple tweeks. Experimenting with a different null set for placement of the cartridge and VTA setting one can extract some not all of what a schroder arm has to offer. Simply put you need to do a lot of homework , get good advice and get your hands dirty to make this table perform with the finest made world 'round.Few folks want to put that much effort into a TT. Charlie