Foot-Long Tonearms
Jim Hannon -- Sat, 05/17/2008 - 09:50
Roy Gregory's reviews of 12" tonearms was really welcomed. Given the expense (and hassle) of linear trackers, I'm really excited so many 12" arms are appearing on the market.
Thanks, Roy, for serving up so many of them for consideration.
Jim
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Which Issue is it in?
The first batch was in Issue 51 and included 12-inchers from VPI, Schroeder, and Kuzma.
The 2nd batch of foot-long tonearms was reviewed in Issue #56 and included the SME 312S, the Brinkman, and the Consonance (as well as the Conductor linear tracker).
There may have been others but I can't find 'em.
(You can check the table of contents from back issues online. Just click on Hi-Fi+ from the AVguide home page. Let me know if you find any others).
Happy listening,
Jim
Don't obsess over the full foot... There are a number of extremely interesting intermediate length arms in the 10.5" range. The most obvious examples are the Triplanar and JMW 10.5, which both offer many of the benefits of 12" arms as regards tracing distortion and that elusive sense of musical flow, but are easier to accommodate on conventional decks, (as well as arguably less vulnerable on skeletal or exposed designs). However, the most interesting is Kuzma's new 4POINT - first seen at CES and reviewed in Issue 60 - which combines interchangable armwands, a 10.5" effective length, independent horizontal and vertical damping, standard (9") Linn type mounting geometry and a completely novel bearing design! Whew - did I leave anything out? Oh yes, it's Franz Kuzma's most accomplished design to date, matching the finish and engineering of the AirLine to significantly greater compatibility and ease of use - along with a lower price. Definitely one to watch...
Meanwhile, in Germany things go the other way, with 14" becoming the new 12". Hopefully I will report soon...
Wow. Tonearms are just like wristwatches!
Where 34mm diameter wristwatches used to be the standard for a man's watch, over the years they have ballooned up - to 36mm, then 38mm, then 40mm, then 45mm, and now some fashionistas wouldn't leave their lair with anything less than a 50mm or larger wrist-anchor.
Perhaps we are seeing the same trend in tone-arms?
Just as a man's wrist has a maximum comfortable size, don't turntables have a limit as to how large the tone-arm platform should optimally be? The potential for aircraft-carrier-sized turntables looms...
Also as a long-time Souther and then Clearaudio linear-tracking tone-arm user, I don't find linear-tracking arms hard to set up - and compared to setting azimuth and tracking angle on some pivoted tonearms, very straight-forward.
I look forward to the tone-arm report with the somewhat similar feelings as the latest reports from the Basel watch show...
Steven Stone
Contributor to The Absolute Sound, EnjoytheMusic.com, Vintage Guitar Magazine, and other fine publications
Ahhh... fashion. Don't ya just love it.
I couldn't agree more regarding both the dimensional issues that afflict ever longer arms (not to mention the question of when increasing effective mass and decreasing rigidity take effect) and the comparative ease of adjustment with well designed parallel trackers, although my personal experience suggests that both Souther/Clearaudio and Goldmund T3Fs are kind of finicky. I think the real issue with passive linear trackers is turntable compatibility, in terms of geometry and overall stability. But then, I did start out my parallel path with an ET2 mounted on an LP12. Hi-fi, like life, can impose steep and often expensive learning curves.
The ET2 was not easy to set-up, but once set-up, stayed that way. I used it for years, tricked it out, and loved its lack of tracing distortion.
I never was willing to tackle the Goldmund arms because one had to adjust the tracks for accurate set-up (I believe).
So just how tough are the latest Clearaudio linear trackers to set-up? (Does one adjust their tracks a la the Goldmunds?)
Thanks,
Jim
Actually, by the time Bruce Thigpen got all the tools and gizmos sorted out the ET2 was a piece of cake compared to some. As you say, it also stayed that way. Great sound, great engineering at a great price - the only fly in the ointment being the high lateral moving mass and the occasional tendency to ground - cured by the WISA pump and later high-pressure manifold used in the 2.5.
How difficult are the Clearaudios? There are two problems, neither of which is insuperable but which do demand care and patience. The arms require a slight down angle on the rails to help them run smoothly and the rails must be kept scrupulously clean, otherwise the arm starts to crab, affecting cartridge alignment in the groove. Spacing of the rails shouldn't ever need adjustment.
More of an issue in terms of getting it right is the fact that the short rod that supports the cartridge can move in two planes simultaneously, so that overhang, tracking force and azimuth are difficult to adjust independently, especially on earlier models. Better fixings have helped to rectify this on the later, bigger arms and they've gone some way towards fixing the VTA adjustment (finally sorted on the monster table, but still a bit of a kludge on the Master Reference down). To add to that concern, the down-angle on the rails means that the VTA alters across the disc, perhaps the biggest conceptual problem with the design.
Having lived with and seriously enjoyed the Souther based models for a number of years, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that something much more radical in terms of a redesign - like the arm on the Statement 'table - is needed if the Clearaudios are going to keep up with the competition.
Thanks for the explanation, Roy, on the Clearaudio arms.
The statement arm they showed at CES this year looked like a new level of performance from them. I hope some of the design advances trickle down to the more affordable arms.
Did you ever damage a stylus using the Clearaudio linear trackers? (I've heard some stories about this possibility but don't know how likely it is).
Thanks,
Jim
Nearly took out the entire cantilever a couple of times!
There were always tales of uneven stylus wear, but running mainly Clearaudio cartridges at their higher tracking forces, I never had a problem. Likewise with the Grado based Music Makers - and they track low. People say the same about the JMW but again, no problems to date. Maybe it's to do with care and attention to set up.