After a week in Australia for F1 racing, I checked this thread.
Surprised I was, that it continues: high horizontal/lateral mass wrecks cartridges (words to that effect), or at least Richardkrebs arm setup does (words to that effect).
It catalysed me, finally, to read Michael Fremer’s review of the Kuzma Air Line Tonearm.
I figured as Franc Kuzma uses significantly MORE horizontal mass than Richardkrebs with his low compliance cartridge, Mr Dover would implicitly conclude Kuzma doesn’t know what he’s about, selling a defective design.
Well, revelation: Michael Fremer says (after initial academic objections to the design)
“Ultra-black backgrounds; enormous, airy, startlingly stable soundstages; palpable images perfectly placed and sized; ear-popping harmonic, dynamic, and transient complexity—I could blather on about the Air Line's convincingly natural performance and brilliant overall balance.
I'd rather just get to the point: In every playback parameter I was able to delineate, the Kuzma Air Line's presentation was staggeringly better than that of any other arm I've auditioned—with the exception of the one included with the $70,000 Rockport System III Sirius.”
“With the addition of a damping trough, the Air Line could very well be the finest tonearm ever built.”
Mr Kuzma replies to MF
"A question of damping..."
A system will resonate only when disturbing forces appear at the resonance frequency. If there are no disturbing forces, then there are no problems. However, if a system is overdamped, then instead of one resonance, two smaller resonances occur, one below and one above the previous resonance, which can create further problems. There is, in fact, a level of effective damping on the Air Line tonearm. The cantilever suspension, and the air supply tube add damping. Our choice was for either too little or adequate damping; we chose the latter.
"Eccentric LPs and any deviation from absolute horizontality will create...problems..."
Horizontal disturbances of an eccentrically spinning record occur only at 0.55Hz or 0.75Hz (33rpm or 45rpm). This is well out of the Air Line tonearm's resonance in the horizontal plane, which is between 2 and 5Hz and does not cause problems tracking virtually all LPs. Plus, if one has a defective disc so poorly pressed or off-center that it might cause such problems, it is perhaps most prudent to simply not play it.”
(Sorry guys if these comments are already part of the thread).
After such a classy weekend I cann’t energise myself to provide a series of theoretically derived, professorial quotes.
It is self evident Franc Kuzma is the real deal, producing superlative product with inherent sonic performance at the far end of world class designs.
Suffice to say Franc Kuzma can be trusted to confidently illuminate the subject.
The same cannot be said of Mr Dover’s bombastic contentions.
