Turntable/Tonearm compatability
Skylo -- Fri, 06/01/2007 - 18:49
What do folks think regarding the compatibility of different tonearm designs and the type of turntable. For instance it seems to me that a fixed pivot arm, like an SME V would work best on a suspended turntable, as it dumps a lot of its energy back into the table. Conversely a unipivot is great for mass loaded or unsuspended turntables because they don't put as much energy into the table. Is my hypothesis correct, and would someone like to elaborate on it. I ask because it seems that there is synergy and I would like to know this before I get a new arm and table.
Your logic may be correct, but the differences you're contemplating are likely to be relatively insignificant. I think that if you focus on matching the arm and the cartridge you'll have no problem with either a suspended or mass loaded table.
Clay
Hi, just wanted to see if I might be able to add some useful info. My experience has been that turntables and tonearms tend to work best together if they treat the energy the same way. For example, I used to have an old Linn Sondek and with an SME it sounded horrid--bloated, sluggish bass and clipped highs. Definitely a rounded, fat kind of sound. After experimenting with alot of other arms and getting way better results with arms from Rega, Origin Live, Hadcock and Naim, I could only conclude my poor results were due to putting a heavily damped arm on a non-damped, light-n-rigid, low-mass turntable. The best musical results I ever achieved were with a Naim Aro on that Sondek--a very quick and nimble, sure-footed sound that never let any part of the music lag behind. Then I also got the chance to hear an SME 20 table and V arm at a local shop here; it sounded mah-va-lous (!) so I figured the arm just didn't match my table. Hope this helps! :D
Oliver Amnuayphol
Home Theater/Audio Guru
Aperion Audio
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