2. analog
  3. 1117142645

TriPlanar Tips

The manual that comes with the TriPlanar Mk VII tonearm is fairly complete, but there are a few things I’ve learned only by living with the arm. Note: I do not know which if any of these would apply to previous versions of the arm. My only experience is with the Mk VII.

1. NEVER raise the cueing lever while the arm is locked in the arm rest. This pressures the damping cylinder and could cause a silicone leak. For this reason and also for safety, whenever the arm is in the arm rest the cueing lever should be DOWN. This is backwards from most arms and takes some getting used to.

2. If your Tri-Planar doesn't cue straight down there's a quick fix, which may be included on some new arms. The problem is insufficient friction between the arm tube and the hard rubber cueing support bar. Just glue a bit of thin sandpaper to the underside of the arm tube. Make it big enough and position it so it hits the cueing support bar at all points across the arm’s arc. (Note: after doing this you will need to adjust the cueing height, see Tip #3.)

3. When adjusting cueing height (instructions are in the manual) always do so with the arm in the UP position. This adjustment is VERY touchy, since the cueing support bar is so close to the pivot. Be patient and be careful of your cartridge. (Note: after doing this you may need to adjust the anti-skate initiation point, see Tip #4.)

Chris Brady of Teres told me of a way to improve cueing even more by re-shaping the cueing support. Moving the cueing support point farther from the pivot improves its mechanical advantage and makes the cueing height and speed adjustments less touchy. This mod is easier than it sounds and requires only a length of coat hanger (!), but I don’t have pix and haven’t yet done it myself.

4. Changing the cueing height affects the point where anti-skate kicks in. (Yes, it's weird.) Once cueing height is satisfactory, adjust the short pin that sticks out of the front of the cueing frame. That pin controls where the anti-skate dogleg first engages the knot on the string.

5. The Tri-Planar comes with three counterweight donuts of differing masses. Many cartridges can be balanced using either of two. The arm usually tracks best with the heaviest donut that will work, mounted closer to the pivot. Of course this also reduces effective mass, which may or may not be sonically desirable depending on the cartridge. It also leaves more room for Tip #6.

6. For fine VTF adjustments don’t futz with the counterweight, there’s an easier way. Set the counterweight for the highest VTF you think you’ll need (ie, close to the pivot). Pick up some 1/4" I.D. O-rings from Home Depot. To reduce VTF a bit just slip an O-ring or two on the end stub. Thin O-rings reduce VTF by .01-.02g, thick ones by .04-.05g. Quick, cheap, effective. (For safety, always lock the arm down while adding or removing O-rings.)

7. When adjusting VTA, always bring the pointer to the setting you want by turning it counter-clockwise at least ¼ of a turn. This brings the arm UP to the spot you've selected, which takes up the slop in the threads. You can easily feel this happening.

Hope someone finds these useful. If you know any more, please bring ‘em on!
dougdeacon
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,973 posts
 
Just a FWIW: although the Triplanar arm is damped, its not a good idea to go tapping on it and especially other arms to ascertain the damping qualities!

The reason is that most arms have very fragile bearings, especially if they use cones or points. The Triplanar bearings are the most durable/hardest in the world; Herb found that lesser bearings failed too easily until he started using the type found in the Triplanar. Triplanar was recently investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, because he is using more of these bearings than the military is :)

I suspect that if you put damping materials in the damping trough (and then did not use it), you would eliminate any signature that it has.
dougdeacon OP
3,338 posts
 
Ralph,

That's an fascinating suggestion but it's way too much trouble to reinstall my trough to test.

I'm going to work up some theoretical objections to justify not trying it. ;-)
paperw8
165 posts
 

08-30-10: Dougdeacon
Dan,

Thank you for asking, I appreciate it. You'll find the answer in my last post, dated 08/27/10. I haven't posted since as it would be fatuous to contribute to a discussion after explicitly asking that it stop.
I've got to say that it seems a bit presumptuous for you to act as though you have personal ownership of this discussion. If you don't wish to comment, then you are free to independently decide to not comment. Anyone else can similarly make their own decisions (of course this is a moderated discussion, so the moderator has something to say about this as well). Nobody is right all the time and nobody has all the answers, and that goes for everyone and for you as well. Here, an issue got raised that you couldn't address; take this as an "emperor's new clothes" moment because while some people will accept your conclusions on some topic just because you expressed it, some people will challenge you to explain what facts support your conclusions.

With regard to this discussion, you have provided some useful information about the Triplanar tone arm. Most of it seems reasonable, some of it seems questionable. Other people, including me, have added some information. I'm not going to declare that everything I write is correct, but if someone has persuasive facts to the contrary, then I want to see it; my attitude is that I might learn something. Even if I am inclined to disagree, it will likely force me to get my facts together to support my opinions; or I might get my facts together and find that they don't support my opinion. Either way, ego is of littel value to me here, the idea is to learn something, otherwise this forum is of little value to me.
dougdeacon OP
3,338 posts
 
Paperw8, a few posts ago you said:
But, yeah, if it's easy to remove, then it's probably worth a try on a "what the heck" basis.
Indeed, and it is easy to remove: take 5 screws out, put 3 back in. It shouldn't take more than two minutes. (Re-checking the alignment of your cartridge will take longer.)

What the heck! Something you hear or observe may shed a different light on the rationale I posted on 12/08/07 (long ago, no surprise you missed it) and which others have confirmed by their own experiments. A different explanation for the audible change from removing the trough might lead to further improvements. That would be very interesting indeed.

Please let us know.
1kitch
19 posts
 
I thought I would pass along my positive experiences utilizing plumbers PTFE tape on threaded connectors in case it is of interest to anyone. I typically tighten feet, visible screws, etc., on new gear when it arrives as I found that often they are not properly tightened and sometimes very loose upon arrival. I recently tried utilizing plumbers PTFE tape on the threads of items in my system including speaker spikes; stillpoints; Raven AC plinth and bearing bolts (including a wrap along the entire bolt shank on lengthy bolts); motor adjusting feet; Triplanar oil trough grub screw prior to tightening, mounting screws, interface between the main counterweight and the arm, and the fine tracking force adjustment knob with very positive results. The tape not only avoids the metal to metal interface but also decreases play between the interconnecting threads. I have found that metal to metal contact is generally not a good thing, nor is overtightening, but having everything properly tightened and decreasing/eliminating the metal to metal interface with the plumbers tape has turned out to be a very positive improvment on everything I have used it on so far in my system.
More to discover