This topic caused me to carefully look at my 3D arm - my arm was produced prior to the newer design. I use a Ortofon cadenza Black with my 3D arm - a heavy cartridge at 10.7g which causes me to use a heavy counter weight. The heavy CtW caused my stub to bend downward and therefore would affect my VTF. I checked weekly and would get a different reading and now I know why. I contacted my dealer who then worked closely with VPI CS (Mat) and I now have a newly designed arm n the way to replace my current 3D arm. My arm was less than a year old. Great service by VPI and in this day of expensive audio gear it is refreshing to know a company stands behind its product - a legacy left behind by Harry etal.
Need help and advice on a VPI 3D arm
I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue with the new 3D arm? I bought a new Prime table 4 months ago to try the new 3D arm I also have a Classic stainless steel arm to load another cart on to compare the two back and fourth, last night I was going to switch the cartridges on the two arms and could not set the azimuth on the 3D arm, to get the azimuth right I had to tilt the drop counter weight plus the Soundsmith intuitive way off of center and it is causing the side weights to rub against the adjustment column and is very tilted, after walking away from the setup 3 times I pulled the arm, pulled the side weights off so it would sit square on a level marble counter top and set it flat on the surface and eyeballed it, this thing has lost its shape, the barrel of the arm has a gradual bend downward and the cartridge shell portion of the arm is rolled down and in. This is really throwing off the geometry of the cart in the arm. I placed the stainless steel arm out in the same way and its barrel is perfectly straight and it's head shell is straight as well, it's only issue is that it is slightly off on the azimuth but that can be adjusted out easily. The fact that the barrel and the headshell on the 3D arm is so far off I certainly can not trust my setup to be accurate. I store whichever arm is not being used in a VPI holding case for the 10 inch arms and it has not been dropped or subjected to any drastic temperature changes. I am going to call VPI on Monday but if this is an issue with these arm wands I certainly don't want another one. Let me also add that I believe that this has been a gradual demise of the arm and that I do love the arms sonic signature so would hope VPI has an answer. Tooblue
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- 59 posts total
- 59 posts total