At CES a few years ago, I walked in on Frank Schröder discussing an idea for a relatively simple pivoted tangential tracking tonearm. Now here at RMAF 2012 the Schröder LT is a reality
The patent pending mechanism has a compact, pivoting base along with a standard pivot that is said to allow the arm to maintain perfect tangency to the grooves without air bearings, pumps, pivoting headshells, wheels and the like.
Because it maintains tangency, there is no headshell offset angle and thus no skating occurs so obviously there's no anti-skating mechanism either, nor does the arm suffer from the usual tangential tracking issue of asymmetrical mass distribution (high in the horizontal and low in the vertical). Overhang is, of course, zero.
The 250mm (effective length) arm wand is either of Snakewood or Grenadill. The headshell is of a proprietary material. The arm allow for both VTA/SRA and azimuth adjustibility.
Price to be determined, but I was told it would be "very competitive" and in the $6000 range. It's being imported and sold direct by Xact Audio (contact Steve at xactaudio@gmail.com.
This appears to be a very smart design that we're hoping to review as soon as possible.
