Gliding for 90° - mechanical linear tonearms: no airpump, no servo

Oreson tonearm

Speaking of Clearaudio, here's an arm that resembles their TT2 and TT3. Since it has a logo on it so I think it's a commercial product and yet I can't find any company website for it. I believe it's made in Taiwan as I found it on two Taiwanese audio blogs. It has a DIY feel to it as it's a variation of the Opus3 Cantus design. Notice the white bearings so I would guess they are ceramic bearings.

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Thanks for the photos and explaining your mods to the Souther. I totally agree with problem #2. I was bewildered by it the first time I saw a Souther that a tonearm would sit on a MOVING part! Glad that you're able to fix the problem. At least Clearaudio addressed the issue. But I'm curious why they never consider using a pivoting base like the one in the Versa Dynamic arm. A tiny magnet can be added to lock it when the arm is swung in play position and I believe it's a bit more user friendly than the raised bridge style assembly. I guess the bridge style arm looks more visually impressive to the buyer.
Hi, thanks for the link. My head is swirling with ideas on how to modify the Souther to achieve this. I do love the arm, but there is a certain lack of rigidity inherent in this design.
 
And another extremely rare, early stereo(binaural) piece if audio history: A turntable for Cook Binaural records.

Awesome! You always come up with the darnedest thing. I get a kick out of it because it literally is a PARALLEL tracker! :D

It prompted me to read up on it and found some interesting history about Cook products. There's actually a pivoted version of this binaural tracker, the Livingston tonearm, which is not as rare as the one Frank posted.

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OK, it's on air, need some perfection (IMHO) but the idea is'nt bad at all. p.s. this is not a project of me!!

Oh no, you broke the no airpump rule! :eek: Just kidding. :D

Very nice. I like the simplicity of it. It looks like a variation of the ET (Eminent Technology) arm, except the counterweight is on the side of the cartridge whereas ET and Walker arms all have the counterweight on the opposite side of the rod.

I notice the bearing is blue so I take it is a NewWay airbearing, the same kind used in the Kuzma Airline. It's the fixed bushing and moving rod genre, advantage being the air-hose is not having to dangle along with the moving bushing like the Kuzma or Rockport. It's interesting that it uses TWO bushings and curious if that's for more radial stability. I wonder if having the counterweight on the other end of the rod helps the evenness and distribution of mass. Has the designer thought of or experimented with that?

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Oh no, you broke the no airpump rule! :eek: Just kidding. :D

Very nice. I like the simplicity of it. It looks like a variation of the ET (Eminent Technology) arm, except the counterweight is on the side of the cartridge whereas ET and Walker arms all have the counterweight on the opposite side of the rod.

I notice the bearing is blue so I take it is a NewWay airbearing, the same kind used in the Kuzma Airline. It's the fixed bushing and moving rod genre, advantage being the air-hose is not having to dangle along with the moving bushing like the Kuzma or Rockport. It's interesting that it uses TWO bushings and curious if that's for more radial stability. I wonder if having the counterweight on the other end of the rod helps the evenness and distribution of mass. Has the designer thought of or experimented with that?

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There is just one bearing in use.
Sorry know nothing more as you can see, I d`nt know the designer.
 
Pre-Audio BT-1301

From a Polish manufacturer, Pre-Audio comes this mechanical tangential tonearm. It looks like another Opus3 Cantus inspired tonearm. The whole assembly lifting mechanism looks like it's lifted (pun intended) from the Clearaudio design.

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Another good one, Frank! It would be the great grand daddy of linear tracker! Better not show it or else that German company Cloneaudio decides to copy it! :D

I looked at the TT-3 recently and noted that the carriage arrangement and slotted glass tube are quite similar to the Opus Cantus and its descendants. I will however point out that CA did not clone the Souther arm, but purchased the rights from Lou Souther decades ago - have friends who knew him personally and know this to be the case. Souther was already fully retired when he started designing the SLA arm.
 
I will however point out that CA did not clone the Souther arm, but purchased the rights from Lou Souther decades ago - have friends who knew him personally and know this to be the case. Souther was already fully retired when he started designing the SLA arm.

I am aware of that arrangement. I was NOT referring to the Souther arm.

There might be other designs that they got "inspired" from but I do not want to get into that minefield of copyright issues. Designs of analog devices have been over a century so I am sure designers, inventors, tinkers, have lifted past designs or features of past designs for inspirations.

I need to update this thread with more modern designs.... eventually. Thanks for checking in!
 
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Looking forward to your updates. :)

I particularly like this one based on the Cantus:

Simply Black Cantus | Veteran HiFi

I've seen one, but not heard it unfortunately.

The CA TT-3 shares its basic theory of operation with this and other Cantus based/inspired arms. I thought it was pretty nice if rather pricey.

The Cantus was available as a kit at one point, and even now could form the basis of an interesting DIY linear tracker if the carriage and slotted glass tube can be found.
 
I make a proper mechanical linear tonearm if you would like to try it and photograph it for this thread it is elegant and robust and can play the most out of this world warped vinyl non tangential 1 moving part,fully working for weeks plays precise everytime no pulleys counter weights no strings pumps or smoothing tanks.
 
I would like to but im not computer savie,still learning to drive the new phone,the compressor app i downloaded is most annoying,so youtube makes it easy for computer gumbies like me,anyway if you have the time to look ,i just loaded a 3 gig vid on youtube,in an account named george rasta.The video is named groovedrive#1 plays Linda Ronstadt canciones de mi padre.if you are computer savvie and can post it on this thread ,you are welcome to.