Triplanar VII tonearm & Koetsu Jade Platinum cart.

HI all

Wow !!! I thot that nobody would reply to my thread, but after 2 days - thks for ALL yr help.

Sorry, if I did not participate interactively as I am based in Beijing, China - so the time zone is a little challenging to be actively discussing this with you guys

On to the subject - I got the Triplanar - brand new - from the dealer in Singapore - and he recommended NOT to use the damping trough - and all his customers had attested to.

Though the Triplanar is brand new, I feel that the manual is not that user friendly and detailed. I must qualify that I am not really a DIY guy, so I will probably "limp" along with this combo with tweaks' help from you.

Currently - to me - the combo sounds fine, but it seems that I will have to tweak some more to get the best out of this combo. Let me absorb what you are suggesting and get back to you.

Pls do not stop to suggest. I would love to continue to get your help

Cheers ... Peter

Herb Papier (creator of the Triplanar) was a perfectionist, and it was not for nothing that he added the damping trough to later iterations of his tonearm.

True enough, but Herb didn't have access to truly well damped cartridges like a ZYX UNIverse, Lyra Olympos or Transfiguration Orpheus, to name a few of today's best. They simply didn't exist in his day. Herb did his best to overcome problems created by the cartridges of his time.

Dgad's comment re: the Ikeda arm reminded me that Raul reported that his Ikeda was the best match for his Koetsu RSP from all the 20-something tonearms in his collection. Higher mass is perhaps the key.

Hi Dgad

How do you add mass to the Triplanar arm ? Any "special" DIY material ? Is it directly to the headshell or the arm tube (nearer the headshell) ?

Also, I assume that once you add mass - need to add a heavy counter-weight or the reverse (use the smaller counter-weight that Triplanar also provides ?

Look forward to your answer and help

Cheers ... Peter

In the US the online retailers sell headshell shims for this purpose. They can mount on top of a TriPlanar headshell to avoid affecting VTA.

You could DIY some yourself pretty easily. You might try different materials, since their effect on resonance behavior will vary. Shims like this muddy the sound of my ZYX UNIverse, but with a Koetsu it might be different.

In the case of effective mass, it is a different calculation than the mass of the arm. I am not 100% sure but I feel it relates to inertia. In the case of a Dynavector arm the effective mass can be altered by using a high mass headshell. On the inexpensive side use some blue tack. Place it under the headshell or on top and some on the counterweight. It is cheap enough an experiment (About $10) to learn the effects of mass. This renders most tonearm upgrades / swaps superfluous since now you are able to test mass changes rather than arm changes. Using a penny stuck on top of the headshell w. blue tack can do the trick as well. Just use a test record before & after & determine your resonant frequency. Listen before & after the change. You should easily learn the difference. Unless the arms bearings are not up to it you should be able to easily hear how mass relates to compliance and effects freq. response. Good luck.