06-17-09: Dertonarm
Dear Axel, Thuchan can give you some comments about the Kuzma 4P mounted on his Garrad 501.
So far the one and only tonearm ever on the market who did it "right" (i.e. - VTA adjustment) is the venerable ET2.
Its VTA adjustment is a circle-segment - thus the effective length is the same at all various points/heights. All other tonearms - all pivot tonearms - do alter their effective length and the alignment when the VTA is altered.
Hard - isn't it.
A true trade-off and showing once again how much room there is for improvement in tonearm design.
Cheers,
D.
hmmm....
"A true trade-off and showing once again how much room there is for improvement in tonearm design."
Well this thread is now over six years old. And D since this time has come out with his own tonearm. Did he address this VTA issue with his tonearm ? Curious... Anyone ?
06-17-09: Dertonarm
Dear Axel, yes, a FR-64s w/B-60 VTA-on-the-fly base.
Still about the most comfortable VTA ever made.
Not really a surprise this proposal coming from me sooner or later........
The new VTA-base by TW is another option and more universal.
The Technics EPA-500 system tonearm is another.
Then there is the old working horse MA-505.
The ET2(2.5) performance in the lower register do very much depend on air flow and pressure. With the usually used Hi-blow and Wisa pumps its indeed quite poor. But there are other more sophisticated options regarding air supply and these do greatly enhance the bass performance - but still not to top-notch-level, while comparable with most that is there today for much higher retail.
The ET2.5 is vastly underated and needs only a bit of brain and investment in the periphery to become a top contender.
Cheers,
D.
The ET 2 and 2.5 when used with Hi-Blow and Wisa pumps is just fine and very natural sounding .....with a correct setup .....per the manual, and herein lies the root of "some" reported problems.
For the Audiogon Record. :^)
Years ago when I was ready to plunk down a chunk of change on a new Deck (you know how it is when you have extra rope for the Audio Hobby Hangman ?)
I reached out to a few people about La Platine; one person of which was D as it was his ref deck. . He was very helpful and steered me away from the current MDF plinthed Platines and towards the vintage version. Between emails I asked him about his ET 2.0 and 2.5 setups. He indicated to me that he set them up with the most counterweight lead possible on the I Beam, and closest to the spindle. Well this is in fact an incorrect setup as documented in the ET2 manual, and, in my days of experimentation (you guys know how that can be too - right ?) led to significant bass resonance in the 100-150 hz (thereabouts) area in my rooms. This bass resonance leads to ill defined bass especially with full range speakers. (Speakers that go to 20 hz and do not lose any DB getting there).
btw - there happens to be Audiogon thread that discusses proper ET2 setup techniques. One could also read the ET2 manual. But our thread is much more fun ( I think) and most of the ET2 manual is now probably on the thread anyway ! lol
Back to the story.
Well, I didn't have the heart to discuss this with D at the time. In hindsight now his ET2 setup was probably influenced by his self professed bias toward the FR tonearms; I found my FR64s to be a very high quality, very slick tonearm, but it did have a LF resonance in my setup. Hmmm.....
If D happens to see this ... hope u r well and I never did receive the thread for La Platine you were to send me to try out.
Anyway. Just saying and from personal experience.
The theory guys can now get back to ......... their theory. :^)
Cheers and have fun listening while we are still are able to.
