Optimization of tangential pivot tonearm using genetic algorithm

Turntables continue to be manufactured and sold today, although in small numbers. Some audiophiles still prefer the sound of vinyl records over that of digital music sources and are ready to pay for high end gramophone systems. We pre-sent here a tonearm constructed so that its rotating cartridge is always nearly tan-gent to the record's groove the stylus is reading thus greatly reducing the anti-skating force. The physical dimensions of the tonearm are optimized using genetic algorithm to minimize the deviation of the cartridge from the tangent along its entire trajectory (tangent tracking). We describe the specific optimization algorithm used, report the simulated results and present a working prototype.