The Palladian-A step beyond


The new cartridge from Acoustical Systems may finally be the LOMC to fully realise the theoretical advantages of the genus.
And convince those long-suffering audiophiles to whom the 'modern' MC presentation has been anathema to 'live sound'....that the realism of vintage LOMCs like the SPUs and FR-7 series has finally been recaptured 👀
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128x128halcro

Nandric,

The mouse wasn't disturbing, only a little surprising. Most of them have been eliminated by B C the cat. She likes to play with them, bat them around and give chase. Then she lets them go.

They scurry off, but mortally wounded from her claws, they find a place to die. Hopefully, that place isn't behind an unmovable object like a radiator. Sometimes I find them by smell.  At first, B C used to bring them to me, but seeing my aversion to mouse, she no longer does.

I have no such aversion to aluminum, the Mr Softee of metals, but it depends on the specifics. It's light weight and rather flexible in thin pieces and I've long said that I prefer straight aluminum cantilevers to tapered, in certain applications.

I agree with Raul in one respect even though I haven't heard any of Brakemeier's products. He hasn't invented anything including the uni-din alignment.  How is an alignment an invention anyway?  Find 2 nulls along the recorded part and you have an alignment. I used similar alignments 30+ years ago setting up Japanese tables. They were inevitably designed for Stevenson. If you locate the cart at the far end of the headshell slots and increase offset angle you get an inner null of about 63.5mm.

With extremely expensive high end carts, it's hard to see the value. Personally, I think WWIII is just around the corner and a solar or wind powered generator/battery charger for your bomb shelter would be a better investment.

Regards,
 

Dear Fleib, It all depends from describing things one way or the

other. Wittgenstein called this ''languge games''. I don't believe

that Japanese invented swords but they are able to make the best

kinds. You claim to have  ''never heard any of Brakemeiers products''

but what would you be able to HEAR from an alignments tool? I think that you have an very limited understanding of ''inovation''. Those are

other things then (new) inventions. In the context of the so called

''intellectual property'' there is diffrence between ''know how'' and

patent application. Ascribing to Brakemeir inventions is not the

same as his own pretention to have invented something or other.

I am not aware that he claimed any invention. But if he owns a

patent for any of his products you can't argue against . Neither can Raul nor even his Sancho Panza. Assumptions are not the same as

evidence.

Nandric,

What's the point, I didn't take the bait on aluminum so you get insulting?

I doubt if Brakemeier has a patent.  As far as I know he hasn't invented anything, but he takes credit for uni-din and on the web site makes some dubious claims about distortion reduction. 

If you want to tout Acoustical Systems there might be better ways than insulting people or crushing any dissent.  I tend to believe Halcro's assessment is honest, but that does not mean I think any phono cartridge is worth $10,000. +

If we could have a rational discussion of "damping", I would like to comment on Raul's long post covering that subject.  There is more than one way to skin the cat (with apologies to Flier's cat).  Besides damping spurious resonances one can also sink the energy that affects the magnitude of the resonance.  This is what I think might be happening with the FR64S/66S.  It may be that the tonearm is efficient at draining resonant energy away from the cartridge body and headshell. Because, as Raul correctly states, there is no impediment to energy transmission along the arm tube and back to the pivot and base structure, it may be that the energy is effectively drained away or "sinked".  

Taking a lesson from the structure of my L07D turntable/tonearm, I took great pains to add mass to the arm board of the turntable where I have mounted the FR64S.  Plus I use the B60 VTA adjuster, which also adds tightly coupled mass to the base of the FR64S.  Perhaps for this reason, and/or because the Acutex cartridge I mounted on the FR64S just does not energize the headshell very strongly, I perceive no issue that I can attribute to resonance.  And the sound is anything but the romantic euphonic one that I think R associates with "distortions".  It is quite uncolored across the entire spectrum. (I have read that MC cartridges are most guilty of this "sin" of producing a lot of mechanical energy into the headshell and beyond.)  Using a single material from front to back, as is done in the FR tonearms, also helps sink or drain away spurious mechanical energy produced by the cartridge.

I think this is an interesting topic.  I also think that trying to kill resonance purely by damping can be a losing proposition unless done properly.

Dear @fleib: """"   How is an alignment an invention anyway? Find 2 nulls along the recorded part and you have an alignment. I used similar alignments 30+ years ago setting up Japanese tables.  """"

As I said to Halcro the problem is that unfortunatelly majority of audiophiles did not learned the tonearm/cartridge geometry alignment subjects/premises by Löfgren but not only audiophiles but analog " guru " professional reviewers as MF or DS ( PF. ) and several others.

The ignorance levels in this regards is really high. The Löfgreen papers are of public domain and can be used for any one with out restrictions and coming from those papers we only see " number's manipulations " as the Stevenson one but does not exist any new method for tonearm/cartridge alignment set up not even new protractors where all are the same and only has real differences on its retail prices. I'm still with the unexpensive and very accurate MINT LP protractor, we don't need anything else.


Regards and enjoy the music,
R.