Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

Dear @dogberry : No, I’m not suggesting nothing like that but only my mistake ( sorry. ) and misunderstood for your statement posted:

" I’m half regretting waking up this thread, especially as some find it hard to be civil. "

I really don't care ( in good shape ) about your experiment, perhaps only for that " crime " adding that third hole to a SME tonearm 

I posted in this thread that once I tested with my SAEC 8000. Were other " times " in my audio life and I did it even with out the existence of underhung tonearm designs.

R.

R.

To rauliruegas

Thanks for your comments. My question to every reviewer (including Harry Pearson at the 2008 RMAF): how do you actually know what exactly is encoded in the LP grove? Unless you have the master tape side by side. And no, I don't want your memory from a concert of the same recording, because our memories are intrinsically imprecise, and between that event and what you are supposed to hear lies a chain of electromechanical recording events AND the taste - or absence thereof - of the recording engineer. So, when you speak of your "target" as "picking up information as is in the grove": what's your benchmark? How do you actually know what's really in the grove, and how do you know whether this cartridge picks up more, and that one less, or that tonearm/cartridge combo, or that tonearm by itself, etc.? Unless you know from the master tape exactly what should be there. And even this is only an approach, because you have no idea what went wrong or sideways during the pressing process. In other words, referring to the "Absolute Sound" as a benchmark in this hobby is fundamentally flawed logic! The only - albeit admittedly subjective - way of accepting or discarding a piece of equipment is our own enjoyment of a piece of music on a record, which we know very well, and have listened to through many different reproducing machines. Only that way can you be sure the new piece is "better" for your ears and oxytocin release. And what about measurements? "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" If a great-measuring piece makes me want to turn down the volume and cuddle my frightened cat instead of listening, that glorious piece of electronics will go to USAudiomart! I just went through this process with a couple of highly-recommended DACS: they all seemed to scream at me: Hey, listen to ME!", putting themselves before anything musical. Only since two weeks after getting my MSB Discrete, am I finally happy with my DSD256, approaching in terms of pleasure what normally comes from my analog deck. I only keep my Stereophile subscription because of the many references to records that I did not know about, because I cannot listen to a particular piece in MY room with MY gear and peripherals, and most importantly with MY ears, as bad as they might objectively be at 75. Back to this discussion: I spent a lot of treasure on Wally gear and precious times to set my analog front ends to the best-possible values; and yet there was always that nagging Doubt in my mind if I really coaxed the best sound of my system, or if a professional, like Saint Bosclair, would have done a much better job. This can become a real psychological issue in my opinion, ultimately taking the joy out of any listening. And along comes the ViV Rigid Float, which can be placed anywhere on or near(!) the TT plinth, as long as it reaches the inner groves of your LP, and - Lofgren Shloffgren - produces truly enjoyable music, and makes me lean back in my chair and enjoy my glass of Sazerac. Sorry, pal, but for me that's all I need to be happy!

I’ll drink to that. But I will add that it does or did make a positive difference when I carefully aligned the cartridge using the L-shaped template, vs when the same cartridge was out of alignment by several mm using the same template, due to my own carelessness. So I use the template each time I change cartridges.  So far, I have auditioned about four different cartridges in the Viv, all of which were familiar to me based on prior listening in overhung tonearms. In each case, the Viv excelled, with characteristics as Reimac described. (This is another important point; if you look at reviews on the internet, the positive comments of disparate listeners using a wide variety of audio systems hang together.)

@dogberry Before making a new penetration into a owned and spare SME Headshell, please refer to the numerous White Papers that are to be discovered on the matter.

I have not been privvy to such elusive content, but do suggest there would be another methodology in use for at least 60 Years to mount a Cart' to a Headshell, if a Penetration in a Headshell was a concern.

SME the revered Company it is, in the eyes of some, has a line of Perforated Headshells, which seemingly or strongly suggests, the Company has not found any fault, or been very confident in a design with additional penetrations in a Headshell.

In relation to the Viv, I feel the methodology for the use of the Oil at a Interface, is one that has a contribution to the end sound the TA is able to produce, and one that is able to make much more of an impression to the end sound than the Trials of Oil Damping I was privvy to.

I feel confident in claiming to typical oil damping methodology for the TA with the rear mounted trough, does very little audibly, not even tidying up the end sound.

I have had much more success tidying up end sound with a Puck Weight,       

Dear @reimarc : Well , I will no drink to that and let me explain what I posted.

"  how do you actually know what exactly is encoded in the LP grove? Unless you have the master tape side by side.  "

I never posted that kind of statement what I posted is that my target is to stay nearer/truer to the recording and I posted too that to reach or been close to that target weneed that each kind of system developed distortions most be at minimum.

My take in whole audio MUSIC reproduction to have top MUSIC enjoyment is to try to have an equilibrium between your classic dogma 100% subjectivity that ( you

repeated ( some way or the other ) in your answer to me ) and objectivity that in this thread issue demands that the stylus tip be centered in the groove modulations.

In my target I reached it using that equilibrium when for one side objectivity tells that any one of us must use LT tonearms and I did it and through the time ( i owned at least 3 different LT and over 15 pivoted tonearms and over 150 any kind of cartridges with different cartridge motors andat least 7 different TTs ) my subjectivity ( equilibrium ) tells me that I had to change to pivot alternative to reach the rigth bass range and to do this the second best alternative was and is use the Löfgreen alignments that puts that stylus tip nearer to what the LT does: NO MATTER WHAT. The underhung just has not that "perfect "equilibrium, no it's not rocket science only common sense andnoIdon`t need those master tapes and if you or any one makes what me neither will need.

Yes, from my statements you are far away from the recording and overall wrong and not because I say so but because almost all of you have not looking for that way demanding equilibrium.

R.