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Silver Member Username: Stu_pittNYC, NY Post Number: 642 Registered: May-05 | I always hear about how good various tonearms are, but never knew what makes them good. Obviously, some tonearms sound better than others, but why? I'd imagine that a good tonearm holds all of the adjustments - VTA, anti-skate, etc - more precisely and longer than arms that are inferior to it, but what else? Does it have to do with resistance to vibration? I realise that their isn't one factor in how good anything is. It is usually a combination of many factors. My question is what are the factors? |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 6038 Registered: May-04 | If you search the web pages of the various high end tonearm manufacturers you will get an idea of what the designers feel is important in a tonearm. The general principle of a tonearm is relatively simple; it should hold the cartridge's stylus perfectly centered in the groove and perpendicular to the groove as the record spins. It should be impervious to warps of any size as well as off center pressings. It should act as a resonant sink for the cartridge's noises while adding none of its own. It should have zero friction in the horizontal and vertical deflections. It should be extremely rigid while having no mass. It should have no sound of its own and should take away no sound from the source. How this is accomplished is a matter of choices the designer makes. Tonearms are low, medium and high mass. They are low, medium and high compliance. Together with the cartridge the tonearm forms a system which can be low, medium or high in resonant frequency. The bearings can be race and ball, knife edge, unipivot or, as with the Well Tempered Arm, no bearings at all. They can be 9", 10" or 12" in length. They can be pivoted or linear tracking. The pivot can be at the back, middle or front of the tonearm. A linear tracking arm can be driven by servos or by the record groove itself. They can be plastic/resin (NAD), aluminum (Rega), carbon fiber (Wilson Benesch) or wooden (Grado) or some other exotic material. They can be straight, "S" curved or "J" curved. They can have detachable headshells, detachable tonearm wands or be rigidly fixed. They can have adjustable VTA or fixed VTA. If the VTA is adjustable, it can be done on the fly or only when the arm is at rest. They can fit in an adjustable mounting hole, a fixed mounting hole or no mounting hole. They can be extruded from one piece of material or they can be made of many different materials. When made of different materials they can be press fit, welded or glued together. They can have tonearm wires that run inside the tonearm or outside the arm. They can be P-mount, two screw, three screw or made to fit only their own cartidge. Boy, I wish you'd asked an easier question. Something like, "what makes a good speaker 'good'?" |
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Silver Member Username: Stu_pittNYC, NY Post Number: 643 Registered: May-05 | Thank you Jan. As usual, a direct and to the point informative reply. I've just gotten serious about vinyl over the last few months. I thinking about upgrading my turntable again. I picked up a Pro-Ject Debut III - which is a very good TT - about 2 weeks ago. I was thinking about trading up for the 1 Xpression, which is said to have a better tonearm. The store has a 30 day trade-up policy meaning that I won't lose any money already spent. From what I've read, the tonearm used on the 1 Xpression - carbon fiber - is far better than the one on the Debut III. In a review, it did a $1500 Koetsu cartridge justice. Not that I'd buy a $1500 cart or believe every review published, but I've seen similiar excellent reviews across the board. Generally, I'm thinking that this table will be able to go a lot further up the ladder than the Debut. BTW - What does make a "good" speaker good? Just kidding. Thanks again... |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 6056 Registered: May-04 | "What does make a "good" speaker good?" That one's easy. It fits where you want to place it. |
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Silver Member Username: Frank_abelaBerkshire UK Post Number: 945 Registered: Sep-04 | The arm on the 1Xpression is far superior to that in the DebutIII. This is not just because of the carbon fibre armwand which raises its resonant frequency to very high levels (good thing). It's mainly because the arm bearing is built to a much tighter tolerance than that in the DebutIII's arm. The DebutIII is a fine entry level deck. The 1Xpression is far better. In addition to the change in the arm, there is a different platter. The Debut's is a pressed steel plate whereas the 1Xpression's is cast aluminium. The Debut's platter is magnetic therefore, which is never a good thing given what the cartridge is up to! Finally and most importantly of all, the 1Xpression has a higher tolerance lpaterr bearing which reduces the noise in the whole system. As for using a Koetsu in one of these, whoever did that is a heathen and deserves burning at a stake for even suggesting the idea since it misleads people into thinking all they need is an 1Xpression for a good result. It's a bit like saying you should buy a pair of B&W 802 Nautilus speakers for your NAD C352... I hate that kind of journalism. Regards, Frank. |
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Silver Member Username: Stu_pittNYC, NY Post Number: 648 Registered: May-05 | Thanks for your insight Frank. I'm most likely going to trade up later this week. The "heathen" who tested the tt with the Koetsu cart were the reviewer and Pro-Ject's Canadian distributer. The review wasn't really based on that, but they seemed to do it for sh!ts and giggles so to speak. Here's a link to the review - http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0804/projectspeedbox.htm |
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Silver Member Username: Frank_abelaBerkshire UK Post Number: 950 Registered: Sep-04 | They should've stuck to the giggles, rather than do the experiment so deeply since this misleads people. regards, Frank. |