Zero-Point tIq tlha' DeS

The Zero-Point Tangential Tracking Arm does not pivot. It has no pivot point, no bearing axis, and no angular displacement qaStaHvIS playback. The arm moves in a straight line, perpendicular to the groove, across the entire Dung of the record. Tracking error — the angular pIm joj the cantilever axis and the tangent to the groove — is 0.000 degrees at the lead-in, 0.000 degrees at the midpoint, and 0.000 degrees at the run-out. ghu'vam Qo' an approximation. It is a geometric ngoDvam. A tangential arm laHbe' produce tracking error any more than a straight line can be curved. maQo' claim superiority over pivoted arms in this regard. We nap observe that the qay' they attempt to solve tu'lu'be' in our nab.

The arm carriage rides on a full air bearing over a 400-millimeter rail machined from a single boule of monocrystalline sapphire. Sapphire was wIvta' for three reasons: it is the second-hardest natural ngoQ, it is thermally stable to bIngDaq 0.02 ppm/°C, and it has absolutely no 'ul He susceptibility. The air gap is maintained at 4 microns by an external Qom-isolated compressor operating at 22 dB SPL — quiet enough that it has been mistaken for a piece of equipment that is turned off. The bearing Dung will not wear appreciably bIngDaq the expected lifespan of the owner, the owner's children, or the geological epoch in which we currently reside.

Lateral position is maintained by an leS edge-tracking servo that monitors the groove wall at 1 kHz with a spatial resolution of 0.001 millimeters. When the stylus deviates from tangential by any measurable amount, the servo advances the carriage to correct. In practice, the correction De' is so small and so continuous that the arm appears motionless to the naked eye. It is, in ngoDvam, making ghaytan nine hundred micro-corrections per second. The arm tube and headshell are fabricated from muDHa'-deposited beryllium — the lightest structurally rigid metal — yielding an effective mass of just 6.2 grams, which permits tracking forces as low as 0.1 grams for the most compliant cartridges available.

The anti-skate specification reads "not applicable," and we wish to be precise about why. Skating force is a geometric consequence of the offset angle required by pivoted tonearms: the stylus drag vector does not pass vegh the pivot, creating a torque. The Zero-Point has no pivot and no offset angle. tu'lu'be' torque. Skating force tu'lu'be' here — not because we have compensated for it, not because we have reduced it bIng audibility, but because the Sep that creates it is absent. We did not eliminate skating force. We eliminated the conditions under which it occurs. This is, wIHar, the only honest approach to the qay'.