Tonearm recommendation

Dear mmakshak:  """  I can see, in theory, why static balanced would be superior, but I wonder if just a little resistance, provided by some dynamic balancing, might actually work better in practice(as advocated by the 1/3 dynamic argument).  That might provide a little resistance to big movements and such, while keeping the ringing.at an acceptable level.. """

the best " ringing is no ringing ". and you are right not only on the static balanced tonearm design advantage but about that " resistance " during LP playback.

Certainly the solution is not a dynamic balanced design, the tonearm designers must found out other kind of mechanisms to do it because is need it.

My advise is to stay away of dynamic balanced tonearm designs and obviously on that  non-damped or not well damped ones. Same for the universal headshells.

regards and enjoy the music,
R.

WRM, I've heard the Talea2 with a ZYX Universe cartridge at the home of my neighbor who was then using downstream equipment much like mine. (His system has since undergone a sea change, except for retaining his Galibier turntable and two Durand tonearms.)  It's an imperfect comparison, but I thought the Talea2/UNI combo was absolutely divine.  There's no way to be sure whether it surpassed my Reed 2A, but I'd have to guess that at worst it is just as good. In fact, these two tonearms have me thinking that wood done right is a good choice of material for an arm wand, although I know there are those who would disagree strongly (and I don't care to argue the point). Even Durand has now eschewed the use of wood and gone to some sort of synthetic material for their arm wands.  Seems odd, because the company was founded on the principle that their particular choice of wood from a particular species of tree was key.

Does anyone here have any experience comparing the Durand and the Reed ?

I've not heard that comparison but I have heard it against the Triplanar. I used my own LP (IOW, one I recorded myself, Canto General) for the comparison. The Talea was very sweet but simply lacked the bass impact. No amount of adjustment brought it out. Its easy to see why when you look at the arm design- the bearings really aren't in the right place so what happens with bass notes is you loose tracking pressure. Of course, there may well be other variables we couldn't lock down but that is one that is pretty obvious.

Regarding the Durand tonearms I can certainly speak to the current model the Kairos that has replaced the Talea. As noted the tonearm material is now a composite rather than wood, as well as performing better I believe this material is easier to work with and more consistent. The Kairos is also a very elegant and simplified turntable, a unipivot stripped down to its essence. It is easy to set up once you get a handle on how to do it and once set up allows excellent and repeatable fine tuning of VTF, SRA and Azimuth -- the latter via adjusting the height of the "outrigger" that controls the lateral roll. Full details can be found in my review which is linked to below. I suspect you will be very pleased with this arm.

The Kairos replaced a TriPlanar in my setup and the comparison is not even close, the Kairos was superior in all respects in particular the ability to keep control of even the most complex and highly modulated material. Since posting the review below I've had another several months experience and find myself enjoying everything I throw at it

http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=general&n=706909&highlight=FolkFreak&search...=

Dear friends: Please think a little on this:

For years analog audiophiles expressed that: digital experiences sounds/performs " lifeless " ( overall. ) against the analog experience.

Why is that?::what are we missing in the digital alternative?:

well, we are missing several " things ". In no order we are missing: two eq. RIAA processes, at least 3-4 amplification processes ( with multiple parts on each one, at least two input/output connector and the IC cables ( 1.0’-1.5 m. and soldered joints, fragility of the audio signal more prone to be contaminated for air electromagnetic pollution, we are missing the TT, cartridge, tonearm and the like, the LP anomalies and friction and cartridge " problems " to the LP ridding, effect of the SPL from the speakers through the analog rig, etc, etc.

In all of what we are mising the audio signal has to pass through and at each of those single steps that signal is heavy degraded and " walking " on with accumulation of all kind of distortions and that’s only part of what happens on LP playback but there are other " things " we are missing on the recording process too.

So what we are missing is just DISTORTIONS. That many of us like those distortions is not the subject and it can’t does nothing to help on all those signal degrading distortions that we have not in the digital alternative.

We are not accustom to purer audio signal and that’s why we don’t feel good when listening to it. All our audio life we are listening to more distortions than pure music information so our reaction is against the sound that has a lot lower distortions and we have not to be scientist to understand that, just common sense as I posted " over and over " in this thread.

That's wy we have to " overdamp " that signal at each system audio link.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R..