Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

1st

The ViV performs in the best possible way with all cartridges we tried out.

And the best means the best.

We tried everything 

light MMs, heavy MIs, light MCs, SPUs, all kind of DS Audio

all cartridges worked better in this arm than in all "normal" contenders

 

2nd

Forget about the "angle distortion". Of course we were eager to find any

negative points with this arm. Especially in the first and last grooves we

"wanted" to hear any distortions.... but nothing, really nothing!

 

3rd

The arm uses no anti skating. There is a small bit of skating force, but this

is way smaller than in conventional tonearms. When you put the cartridge

down on a non grooved vinyl the arm moves SLOWLY to the middle. Even if

you do this to the non existent outer or inner "grooves". Do this with a

conventional arm and it will dangerously speed up.

 

4th

We compared the ViV 9" with a huge variety of conventional tonearms from

Ortofon to DaVinci, from Shindo to Ikeda. There was not one arm better than

the ViV with only even one cartridge.

 

After all these tests I sold my conventional arms of my main turntable and

now I happily live with two Rigid Floats and can only smile on discussions

like this.

:-)

@racedoc fantastic, someone who has actually done the same as me and auditioned the Viv against other arms and therefore can speak with 1st hand experience and not theory. I applaud you sir.

Naysayers take a leaf out of this book and go listen.

@neonknight - so? Are you going to order one after hearing all of these opinions?  

@racedoc I am impressed the ViV 9" Arm superseded in use a combined value of Tonearms that must be near $12-15000 in total value. Must have been a great time doing the evaluations.

Myself on occasion receives a invite to play the role of an evaluator of a work going through R&D and as a working Prototype.

Usually there is a situation where a pre-version of the device under scrutiny can be introduced to the assessment and used as a exact mimic, albeit, as a earlier guise.

This is my interest in equipment and even though used in conjunction with listening to music, it is not anything to do with my interest in listening to music. The listening to music interest, starts with a passion for being present and sharing in a live performance, it can be a Busker through to a Stadium Concert. The listening to recorded music is secondary and a form of home entertainment, and the more the social activity achieved during any of the former are for myself for the betterment.

I really enjoy the creative work carried out by others, learning about the reasoning for the designs and how the designs are produced to reduce known flaws of other designs created and of certain Branded Designs.

I get to experience this through mechanical, micro engineering work, such as works done on Tonearms or Platter Bearings, or alternatively through electronics, such as Signal Path, Speed Control, or Power Supplies.

Fortunately, such days set aside aside for demonstrations are built on a social gathering and the fundamental aim is to spend time with like-minded company.

The work undertaken and being assessed is the secondary aim.  

My experiences of sharing in the works undertaken by others, leaves me confident in my knowing these individuals are not lost, they are extremely open minded, a little insular with their IP, but quite interactive and willing to readily share the creation produced with over. Certainly not expectant to win favour with all, or in any way suggest another's choices are faulty and not worthy of a place. This is the antithesis of some of the most recent statements made within this thread by a few contributors. 

I get the sense the ViV Arm has something of the above attached to it, maybe this is one of the reasons the Arm has an attraction to me.    

In a recent post, it is made known I am soon to be involved with upcoming A/B Comparisons, where I am once more invited to be taking part in as an evaluator. This new period of assessments are designed to enable a much more broader usage of a range of Tonearm models are to be put under the knife, where a subjective assessment will be attributed to all models being demonstrated.

Your description does lead myself to believe there is a like-mindedness shared between us.    

 

@pindac , Sorry pindac but you must live on a different planet. Just look at this discussion. Humans are endlessly competing with others and even themselves. At the route of it all is our survival instinct. If I did not compete with myself I would not be able to make the furnisher I do. Competition is healthy in us until it gets to killing each other.  All the audio manufacturers compete with other manufacturers of similar equipment. They have no choice if they want to survive. I do know that many CEOs of audio manufacturers are very close friends with other audio CEOs. AJ Conte was very close with David Fletcher. Both made turntables but they were priced at distinctly different levels and did not compete directly with each other. In fact AJ used David's basic design for his turntables with David's blessing.

We all try to buy what we think is "better." Thus the manufacturers have to make their equipment better which is a good thing. 

@rauliruegas  Read racedoc's last post. Incredible isn't it. @racedoc, you offer absolutely no rational reason why the Viv arm should not be the disaster it is.  You support it purely on an emotional basis, always the road to ruin. You obviously do not know what to listen for. Tracking angle error of that degree changes the timing between channels as the stylus is now reading one channel before the other. This is going to create a phase differential between the channels most prominent at higher frequencies working its way down as the error increases. It is that time and phase information that generates the image. With phase errors the image becomes less distinct. If you can not hear this in an AB comparison with a good normal pivoted arm like the Reed 2G or SME V it is because your system does not image correctly. Don't feel bad, very few systems do image correctly and very few audiophiles have heard a system that images correctly. Most loudspeaker/rooms are incapable of imaging correctly and that includes some very expensive ones.  

The Viv arm make a few important points. An arm that does not skate is a good thing. The compromises the Viv arm makes to achieve this are unacceptable. A tonearm has to be held rigidly in all but two directions rotation vertically and rotation horizontally. It can have absolutely no motion in any other direction or the cartridge can not make an adequate representation of the information held in the groove. The Viv arm fails to do this and It's bearing design has no real benefit.

In short, the Viv arm is a Rube Goldberg device and will do down in history as such. It will not be alone. There are many other tonearms that fit in that category. It is what happens when someone with no idea what they are doing designs what they think is a simple device.