Why not use an arc'ed lathe?

LOL

The idea died like square wheels.

@atmasphere : What I meaned in reality was not that you are the lathe manufacturer but you are an audio items manufacturer and in that post you speak as it not as a customer in that specific regards.

Sorry, no intention against you.

R.

'manufacturers like me'??

We've tried really hard to make our stuff plug and play; automated the bias, made it really easy to set up the amp (matched tubes not required) and such. I recognized 30 years ago that stuff has to be easy to use or it will wind up in a closet or worse.

'Manufacturers like me' have got nothing to do with it. If you want to give someone a hard time about it, talk to the lathe manufacturers? What's that?? you don't know any??

Sheesh.

Atmasphere: So what?. We are the customers and needs always that any audio item be USER FRIENDLY, thing that almost never happens because manufacturers like you think on the " troubles " and not the customer benefits.

Anyway, perhaps that could be happen never. Maybe the wise idea is to late for it.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Sounds just like setting up my linear tracker. :^)
Sounds just like setting up my pivot arm !

Yes. Now imagine that the difficulty of doing so is 10 times greater and has to be done very 10 hours of use!

Once its right at any point on the LP surface its right anywhere else too.

Sounds just like setting up my linear tracker. :^)

Setting up a radial cutter means that you would have to insure that the stylus is set up exactly right at two points on the LP. That would be about 10 times trickier!

Sounds just like setting up my pivot arm !

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thanks for sharing that info Atmasphere.

Maybe but true user friendly for we customers. Don't you think?

R.

I can answer part of this.

The actual mechanics of doing a radial cut on a lathe is not that profound. The problem is that the cutting sylus is good for about 10 hours on the outside. Each stylus seems to be different from every other stylus. So when its time to replace it, the replacement part is simple. The setting up the cutterhead to work the way it did before is not. That might take a bit of work getting it right.

Now setting up so that its tangental is hard enough and its something you that have to do and get right. Once its right at any point on the LP surface its right anywhere else too.  Setting up a radial cutter means that you would have to insure that the stylus is set up exactly right at two points on the LP. That would be about 10 times trickier!

Dear @nrenter: I ask me the same question for years. Problem is that I think there is no single cutting lathe manufacturer today to change the the tangential way all thos machines where designed.

In the other side, it's not enough truly new LP recordings to justify the investment and the thousands of existents LP where recorded that way.

Now, maybe could be a mmechanical/elctric impediment for in the past no one really took that clever path.

We just can dream.  In those all time maybe not many recording companies and audiophiles really cares about the " today " true problem with that tangential cutting lathes designs for every one of us.

As I said, we can only dream with and listening to those generated distortions about.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.