Trans-Fi Terminator Tonearm: 2019 Update

What is TFT, sorry?
No, my issue was purely a cart issue
I didn't realise I had a totally incorrect loading value on my phono
Had I got that right, or used my cart, likely I would have kept it
Fate intervened, and I ended up 12 months later w Salvation Terminator instead 
The eventual owner of the slate 401 Terminator was v happy indeed

@spiritofmusic, TFT = Trans-Fi Terminator.

Absolutely keep it in contention. Cart loading issue at the time, not the tt or arm.

My Terminator is mounted on Vic's slate Salvation, and the combination really slays.

@spiritofmusic It's interesting that the path to the Terminator began with the desire to move away from big branded audio razzamatazz dealer input. I live in a part of the world where cars and audio gears typically retails for twice their US counterparts. ( Yes, a base Macon retails for $ 88,000, and a Harbeth 40.2 Aniv. $40,000. ) The entire luxury audio ecosystem is a big turnoff. The way Vic brought his product to market through Andrey's  continued efforts speaks volumes. 

In reading your posts, past and present, our tastes and priorities in audio equipment may differ, other than the Terminator. However, I believe the the commonality is the pursuit of reproduced music that mirrors as closely  to our lived musical experiences. 

@bdp24 I have a suspended plinth in the La Platine which I was told would not be a good fit for linear tracking arms. Not the case at all.

@ledoux1238, Did I make the case for a suspended plinth not being a good fit with a linear tracker? I saw Brooks Berdan mount and use the ET on many Oracle and SOTA tables, both having fairly "soft" suspensions. When the VPI TNT was introduced, he preferred it’s higher mass and firmer suspension for use with the ET. But I saw a couple of Linn’s with ET’s in Brooks’ shop!

My ORACLE DELPHI and Terminator performing in 2009, taken by a digital camera:

https://youtu.be/Ql9Gq6ir7hA

If you look at Vic's website in past, plenty of trad suspended tts have Terminator installed.

The only critical issues w the arm are getting it level, care w cable dressing, free flow of air from pump.

The tt suspension is not a consideration.

Ooh...the Terminator adapted to work with a damping trough...what an idea!

The Townshend Rock 3 was my TT for ten years. 

I have been following a thread on azimuth and other cartridge adjustment issues. I would like to ask how do you set Vertical Tracking Force on the Terminator? According to the manual, you set VTF before turning on the air pump. However, when the air pump comes on, would the air pressure not provide a lift to the slider and thereby reduce the downward tracking force by a fraction?  

This is a follow up to my VTF set up query. There is a 0.03 g tracking force differential with the air pump turned on or off. I had assumed that the tracking force would be less with the pump on. However, it turns out to be the opposite case. After much adjustment,  the ZYX ultimate 1000 is playing at 2.00 g, exactly as manufacturer recommended, but measured with the pump on. I am now of the opinion that measuring with the pump on is more accurate.

The real revelation for me was experimenting with surge tank. Due to Corvid 19, I have an empty 5 liter tank used for storing alcohol laying around. Just out of curiosity, the tank was converted with nozzles and inserted between the existing 1 liter tank and the Terminator. The pump used remains the original Sera. The increase in SQ is quite noticeable. The separation of instruments within the soundstage is shaper, the soundstage width increased beyond the speaker, and the soundstage depth is much more defined. The $5 I spent is comparable to a $1000 or more ( ?) cartridge upgrade. @terry9 had mentioned his upgrade in pump and surge tank. But this is just a simple addition of a larger surge tank for a great amount of sound improvement!! Highly recommended if your listening environment will allow it. The question for me is whether an additional say, 10 liter, tank will yield even greater improvement in sound?

Ten litre tank? Don't see how it could hurt. Why don't you try it and let us know?

Glad it's working for you - and yes, measure with the pump on. What happens is that the inboard end of the wand lifts, which lowers the cartridge end and puts more weight on the stylus. 

Connect another 5 litre tank in series.

In adding the 5 liter in series with the existing 1 liter, I noticed that a slight increase in pump pressure was needed to prevent the tonearm from mistracking. Any additional surge tank will probably result in further increase in pressure. I was actually contemplating a 30  liter tank in series with greater reduction in air fluctuation. And I think the Sera pump with a max output of .14 bar should be able to handle.  How does one go about  determining  the point of diminishing return  on reduced air fluctuation? 

Here's another thought. Have you tried loosely filling the tank with cotton balls, or some such, to break up any sound waves from the pump?

How ‘loosely’ in your experience? A couple of dozen balls for a 5 liter tank?

Mostly filled, but neither packed nor compressed, to within a few inches of the outlet. The direct line between inlet and outlet apertures must be interrupted by cotton balls.

I must apologize for my previous post regarding the size of the surge tanks used. I have a 1 gallon ( 4.4 Liter ) tank supplied with the tonearm. My recent addition was in fact a 25 liter ( not 5 liter as previously reported ) tank. The improvement in SQ was not subtle. Over the weekend I added an additional 20 liter tank in series. The improvement continued. 

I have been listening to a Wayne Shorter record, Adam's Apple, as a reference throughout this couple of weeks. It was recorded in 1966-67, the third album after Speak No Evil, and it contains the classic Shorter composition, Footprint. With each additional surge tank, the soundstage became more vivid,  Herbie Hancock's piano playing was more enveloped, more 3-dimensional. Jazz at the pawnshop, an album I have owned for decades finally came alive. The live venue in the background with broken glasses and shouting waiters, was recreated with increase micro-dynamics.

After two days of listening, I decided to add fillers in the surge tanks. While I did buy cotton balls, I actually used crumbled paper balls instead. I felt the crumbled paper balls are more irregular, thus better at disrupting air fluctuation and smoothing out the air flow.  What the added fillers did was to 'smoothed' out the sounstage even more , giving a more relaxed music presentation. On Shorter's Adam's Apple, Shorter's sax was always a bit forward. But with the addition of the filler balls, the sax blended more into the soundstage and the music emerged more from a single fabric. That's what I heard anyway.

I am going to leave it as is more now and enjoy the increased level of music playback. But I continued to be amazed by this humble tonearm, and this seemingly minor tweak yielding such enormous sonic benefit!

Glad it worked for you! We're all in this together.

Thanks, Terry! Your surge tank foray was the inspiration.

I read recently a Terminator owner in Hong Kong who uses a 50 liter tank with a Hi Blow 20 series pump. And he uses a smaller, 5 liter, tank in series, before connecting to the tonearm. The total volume of his surge tanks is close to what I have, though I feel that breaking the tanks into smaller piece may help in smoothing out the air fluctuation more. 

As VTA / SRA adjustment can be done on the fly, I did a bit more study. I am finding that with almost all records, I am adjusting VTA within a 3.5 - 4 mm range. Given that the pivot to stylus length is approx. 85 mm, the height adjustments translate to a 2 - 2.5 degree angle difference. I am slowly getting a feel for the thickness of the records, and where the optimal VTA should fall for that perfectly dialed in sound. And no two record is dialed in with the same setting which means no two record is cut quite the same. I am of the opinion that there is no magic 92 degree rake angle that very cartridge should be tracking. 

@ledoux1238 

Very intriguing! I run a Terminator and also have a surge tank close to the arm, made from 4" PVC pipe capped at both ends.

Can you tell us what you used for your 20 and 25 liter tanks? Where you got them and how you made them?

And also the link to the Hong Kong guy?

@simes 
Here’s the HK link  https://m.review33.com/forum_msg.php?db=1&topic=61090712061532&start=6735&sort=1&num...=
The thread is in Chinese, but the response with surge tank info is in English near the top of the thread.

The surge tanks  that I am using are generic plastic water containers. They are similar to  the gallon surge tank supplied by Andrey, just larger. Inlet / outlet holes are drilled and filled with chrome plated nozzles, inlet at bottom, outlet on top. 1/4” silicone tubes are used throughout.

Of the three tanks, I have filled the two larger tanks with a mix of crumbled paper balls and cotton balls, a little less than half full. @terry9 apparently fills his tank with cotton balls to within a few inches near full. 

A final word on VTA. Since my VTA setting ranges within 4 mm, I have made VTF measurements at the high and low VTA settings. The VTF differential between 4mm is around .03 g. My VTF is set at 2.0g in the middle of the VTA range. Moving the VTA up and down 2mm from the middle will result in a change of VTF of max. .015, so pretty negligible.

I've been chatting with Simes about this. My pump is over 55'/15m from the stock smoothing tank, thence 15'/5m to Terminator. He contends that length of air hose will already be doing a lot to smooth air flow, but I'm game to try an extra 30 or 50 litre surge tank, filled with cotton wool or crumpled paper balls to aid smoothing.

What is the specific Google search to use for these tanks and the nozzle attachments required?

Hi Marc, 
This is similar to the tank I am using: 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Litre-PLASTIC-WATER-CONTAINER-Containers/dp/B003URSXQI

This is similar to the type of nozzle used : https://www.landefeld.com/gruppe/en/threaded-nozzles-with-tapered-thread-up-to-16-bar/GT186KMSV

Additionally, you need a drill and  fast drying clue. 

In re-reading the HK post, surge tanks have to be used in low pressure / high air flow applications, like the Terminator. I seem to understand that for high pressure/ low air flow applications, I.e. ET, Airtangent...etc, surge tanks are not required. The assumption is that surge tanks are used to disrupt high velocity / fluctuating air flow. This allows a smooth / regulated air flow to reach the manifold. I assume that the slider on the Terminator would probably oscillate too eradically to control the cartridge without any surge tank at all. ( Terminator without surge tank is one experiment I am not interested in performing. ) I have noticed that with the additional surge tanks, the slider glides along with almost no lateral swaying. This presumably allows more electrical information to be passed along to the cartridge. I am, however, fuzzy on the physics of it all. For instance, l am not sure if longer tube runs equals smoother air flow. What is certain is the improvement in the arm’s performance.

@spiritofmusic 

As for hose and fittings, talk to the folks at an industrial air shop. They have connectors with barbs for the hose on one end, and threads on the other. A cost-effective alternative is as Ledoux, our OP suggests: a 4" PVC tube with end caps, all glued up, a hole in each end which is tapped to accept the thread on the connector, and some hose. For long runs I use 1/2" - rubber is best, as it flexes a bit with pressure peaks, and so tends to reduce those peaks.

It's actually quite liberating to talk to the people at the plastics shop and get their advice, ditto with the air people, and ditto with the tool people (auto, fastener, general tool store), about what you need, and how to do it. And then do it. When I retired I had never tapped a thread, now I have a drill press, an oscilloscope and a whole damned shop. I DIY everything - hell, if Jimmy Carter can retire and make all his own furniture, there's no shame to making my own audio!

Best of luck! Enjoy the journey!

Regarding the use of surge tanks for high pressure / low flow type linear tracking tonearms, Eminent Technology, Air tangent..etc, surge tanks are indeed used. All linear tracking arms require regulated / smoothing air flow. I guess it's simple physics. However, most ET arms seem to use a tube type surge tanks, much like what you describe @simes . 

It seems what is critical in achieving stable air flow is the increase in surge tank volume. 

@terry9 I have been in and out of plastic shops, rubber tire shops, aquarium shops..etc. However, my reception in those places have been less than hospitable in general, often the receiving end of funny looks when the 'audio' is mentioned. 

I do have a serious query: Is anyone using an Eheim pump, if so, which model? Apparently, it has the lowest noise level of all the aquarium type pumps. 

Why is this 4" PVC tube an improvement over the other tanks suggested?

Re Eheim, strange you should mention that...a client of mine into aquariums as a hobby suggested this very make to me.

I was one of the original owners of the Terminator and worked with Vic all the way up to the T3. Went back to pivoted arms and could not accept the difference in sound, I finally looked into pivoted linear arms and have found an equivalent to the air bearing linear arms the Thales Simplicity II incredible sound comparable or better than the Terminator albeit at a cost

@spiritofmusic

Why 4" PVC? It’s cheap. It’s good. It’s easy to tap threads. Wish I’d thought of it before. Thanks Ledoux.

I use HiBlow pumps. Bulletprooof, low maintenance. I even use one for a mid-pressure (270mm Hg) system.

With all due respect to @terry9 , I feel a larger volume tank, preferably squarish with filler is still the more effective method. I only mentioned the PVC tube as it seems to be used in ET arms. If the goal is to smooth out unregulated pulsating air flow, then some form of impedance and disruption will be required.  A larger diameter tube is still directing air flow not disrupting it.

A squarish tank with inlet / outlet situated in a diagonal relationship and fillers in-between seems to offer the air path of most resistance. I liken the process to water filtration. You want the filtration tank to be large and the outlet to be small. Water flow then slows, with greater amount of sediment, and hence cleaner water out the other end. Anyway, that's my unscientific two cents worth :)

@spiritofmusic The Eheim seems to be the gold standard in the aquarium hobby. The Sera 275  that I am using has an output of min. 275 liter / hour. There are Eheim models with 200 l / h or 400 l / h. And it's the 'min.' in the Sera specs that is throwing me off. Are the Eheim specs min or max? I wondered if  your client could shed some light?

Agreed, a filler is required. One way to break up air peaks and troughs is to run a perforated hose from the inlet, inside the tank. Just add cotton balls ... Another way is to put a precision regulator in front of the surge tank. I do both.

@terry9  Perforated hose..... Brilliant! That I'll try. 
Where to source a precision regulator?

@jtsnead  In reading many of the comments from early adopters of the Terminator comparing its  recent performances with upgrades in manifold, arm ward..etc, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised as to how far it has come.  But given where you have landed in your tonearm quest, I probably would want to trade places with you :)0  The Thales Simplicity is a beautiful arm with such unique technology. I especially enjoyed the factory tour video by Fremer of HiFiction, the parent company of Thales. 

Can / Do you adjust VTA on the fly?

My Terminator is not currently set up, but I like the idea of a second surge tank made of stiff material like a capped PVC tube and placed close to the tonearm. I suspect the underlying issue is that a long, soft silicone hose modulates in sync with the pump. It’s likely better to have a short length of hose near the arm, or a stiffer hose material such as automotive hose inside steel braid.

To get an idea of the level of bearing turbulence, place the stylus on a stationary record with the pump running and listen to the speakers with preamp volume turned high.

BTW it’s a great arm. I modified it extensively with a lightweight carbon fiber slider formed over a foam core, and various custom wands and detachable headshells. However, some vintage MM/MI cartridges had tracking issues with it and were better served with an SME 3012R or Kuzma 4P. But the TFT’s general performance is up in that league.

See the link below to my photos you can see the PVC tube with end caps I designed for my Terminator over 15 years ago, it worked very well I had the filter after the surge tank before the arm. I never had issues with pulsing.

I was one of the first people to ask for Eichman rca’s and direct line cables for the T3. I had Vic make silver leads with silver Eichman’s

I do feel you have to take the arm off and clean it every year or so to keep it running optimally.

@ledoux1238 yeas The new T3 is intriguing and I would of gotten one to live with again but the Thales does everything the T3 does and it is so much easier to swap cartridges.

I will give a shout out to @dgarretson he helped me with a custom brass base for my T3 which helped in getting a firm foundation for the arm see below

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/3585#&gid=1&pid=5

Ledoux, I use a precision regulator from Fairchild. Talk to one of the industrial air mail-order outlets for advice. I ended up with a model 10 if I remember correctly, but that was years ago, and now would probably specify a M4100A for the Terminator.

I second the need for a solid foundation. A simple pillar of 2" aluminum rod works wonders. And for cleaning. 99% isopropanol and a cotton ball is ideal.

I am coming around to the idea of using a PVC type 'filter'. Perhaps as @dgarretson indicated, the silicone tubes may be in sync with the modulated air flow, and a stiffer material may break it up. This 'filter' should probably be used in tandem with other surge tanks, each performing a slightly different function in modulating air flow. And it be placed close to the arm as the last filtration piece before air enters the manifold. Nice!


@jtsnead 

I will give a shout out to @dgarretson he helped me with a custom brass base for my T3 which helped in getting a firm foundation for the arm see below

Please see link below. A fellow Terminator user's exploit into a better arm base, for Salvation TT and others. The key is a two point fastening connection.
https://darklanternforowen.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/terminator-tonearm-new-arm-mount/


@terry9 

Thanks for the info. I'll look into it.

I'm running Andrey's new Terminator/Owen's Al armbase. I cannot praise the combination enough.

I strongly second Spiritofmusic's recommendation for  Andrey's new Terminator/Owen's Al armbase. Both are major upgrades to the Terminator/

Just ordered this regulator: https://www.globaltestsupply.com/product/dwyer-mpr1-0-pressure-regulator-0-5-psi-air-only

Over the weekend I added an additional 3" PVC pipe capped at both ends approximately 50 cm in length in series with the three surge tanks already in place. This was placed next to the Terminator with 1.5 m of  plastic, not silicone, tubing. The sonic effect is a tightening of the soundstage where the instruments snapped into place even more than before.

I experimented with removing the surge tanks and using the PVC pipe as a stand alone filter / surge tank. It is a far more effective modulator of air flow than I previously had imagined. Great suggestion from @jtsnead  and @terry9 .

@simes Thanks for the regulator link. 

Two more updates:

1. Having added the 3" PVC pipe surge tank, the pressure provided by the as-supplied Sera pump had to be increased to maximum level. I decided to switch pump to a Enhiem 400. Pressure is at half full level, but operating with much lower noise. 

2. A new phono stage was acquired recently, Channel D Lino C 2.0. It is a transimpedence type stage, battery operated. It accepts XLR input only, and required cabling to be twisted, shielded, and balanced. I asked Andrey to supply a new wire with XLR input. ( And waited three months for them to arrive from Moscow. )  As the wire for the Terminator is essentially bare with no shielding, it apparently does not allow the proprietary recharging mechanism of the Lino C to be triggered. For a few months now, I had to manually un-plug the cable after each listening session in order for the battery charger to kick in. 

A fellow audiophile came over this past weekend and provided a simple diagnosis to the problem. Using a single strain of Cardas 33 awg copper wire, and twisting it over the exposed tonearm cable provided the necessary shielding !!! Now the phono stage is operating with its battery charging mechanism as intended. Twisted copper wire is the shielding solution just in case Terminator users are having problems connecting to devices that required a battery charging trigger. 

BTW, Channel D Lino C 2.0 is a great phono stage with recent write up on TAS.

Ledoux...adding additional smoothing tanks permits lowering of air pressure at the pump?

@spiritofmusic The additional 3” dia x 30 cm smoothing tank required ‘increased’ pressure. The original pump was almost maxed out. I switched to a higher output Enhiem pump. 

An additional surge tank idea is no tank at all. Using long run of copper piping coiled like radiators would be a very effective air modulator. The stiffness of copper, or PVC in the case of the smoothing tank, is the key, as was mentioned by @dgarretson

I'm confused by this. Vic formally warns against using higher flow pumps. 180-250 litres/hour is his recommendation. So if using extra tanks necessitates more pressure/higher flow, isn't this contradictory?

The pump that came with the Trans Fi was a Sera Air 275 R plus with output of 4.5 liters / min, or 270 liters / hr. I am assuming that 270 l / hr is max output. Until the smoothing tank was added, the vol dial on the Sera was at 50%, even with the 20 litre and 25 litre surge tanks in the loop. That means It had been operating at 270 / 2 = 135 liters / hr. However, with the PVC smoothing tank in place, I literally had to turn the pump to max, or at 270 liters / hr, and the arm still was a bit unstable, skipping / mistracking at times. That’s when I decided to increase the output, not knowing really Vic’ recommendation.

The Enhiem 400 output is 400 litre / hour. The volume dial is at 70%, so maybe 280 - 300 liters / hour. And yes, I am a bit over Vic’ recommended range. However, before this whole surge tank experiment the arm was running at 135 litres / hour, a bit less than Vic ‘s range.

I suspect that if I were to place a gauge at the arm, it probably is receiving an output within Vic’s range. But with all the air mudulators added to disrupt air flow, the pump has to work harder at the front end. 

So Ledoux, the benefits audibly of adding extra tanks outweighs the theoretical disadvantages of having to run a higher pressure/air flow?

So Ledoux, the benefits audibly of adding extra tanks outweighs the theoretical disadvantages of having to run a higher pressure/air flow

The  benefits are clearly audible, and not subtle. 

I just sent an email to Vic regarding increased pressure, awaiting his answer.....

Here's Vic's lightening fast response:

" Hi Albert 

Interesting with the surge tank cascade. I have had several people fallow this path & report back positive results.

Here is my test for air-flow:

Position the stylus above a stationary record. Turn the volume up. Drop the stylus gently on the record. When it touches the record, can you hear the air flowing through the manifold? If you can, the pressure is too high.

Cheers

Vic"

I'll try out his test and report back.