Curved and Straight Tonearms

Dover : I can see that you return for more more and push me to give an answer, good.


"""  This is not the first time that you have made big mistakes in setting up your equipment, I previously highlighted to you that you had installed your Dynavector Karat Nova ..... """

what you have in your link it was not a SET UP in my system. Even in the other pictures in that Agon advertasing ( where you took your link. ) the cartridge was mounted ( just for the sale pictures. ) in a tonearm that was not mounted in my system or a TT. So the only purpose of your link is to " hit " me but you can touch me with that no-sense post.

"""  In this post you were wrong when you advised people to "not use" the lateral balance """

I'm not given an advise for not use it but only what is in the manual that maybe Lewm did not read ( I know now that he had not the manual. ).


"""  headshell provided with the Dynavector Karat Nova is "terrible" when you say that you never used it. """

Use something for me is to do it regulary and I never used the 13D with that headshell. Was enough when I received it to mount just as it came to decided to mount in other headshell. In those times I was convinced of the importance to mate a cartridge with the rigth headshell. but you did it the same because you used the Karat Nova with an Ikeda headshell in the Dyna tonearm. 


Your recrimination posts proves nothing of what you want to prove.

Instead of follow losting your time with those kind of posts try to be a better audiophile growing up to do it. I know is not easy for you when exist one or more tubes in your system, with no future here but you can follow enjoying your " terrible " FR. Great combination: tubes and FR !

R.

As an owner of multiple FR tonearms including the FR66s and also have set u quite a number of FR arms for others, all I can say it is a very good Tonearm if coupled to the right cartridge. This is a very heavy Tonearm and best suited to very low compliance cartridges. Properly setting up the lateral balance weight is critical for that arm to work properly. There is a proper way of doing this. And honestly the weight almost always stays at the end of the shaft. That is from my vast experiences setting up these arms. 

Genesis, I am using mine with a lightweight, non-FR, headshell, on which is mounted an Acutex LPM 320STR cartridge. I was prepared not to like this combination or to have a problem with bass response, at the very least, but I find that I do like it, and by this time I have been listening to it for nearly a year, off and on.  The bass has great definition within the musical envelope, with no hangover or spurious rumble. From what I have read, the FR headshells by themselves are quite heavy, and I assume therefore that they account for a significant fraction of the OEM effective mass of an FR64S.  I am also guessing that with my lightweight headshell, the effective mass is markedly reduced, although I haven't calculated it.  

Finally, the basis for Raul's criticism of these tonearms seems to be that they lack damping.  I have noted previously that in fact the pivot does seem to contain some viscous liquid that actually probably does provide a bit of damping. I infer this from the fact that at cold temperatures, the bearing becomes a bit stiff, overdamped in fact.  So, I think what might be going on is that Raul has a fact and an observation that he believes correlate. Fact: the tonearm has no damping (he assumes). Observation: He doesn't like this tonearm.  He is drawing a correlation between his listening experience and a principle of construction that may not be valid. We audiophiles commit this sin of attribution all the time. What is valid is his personal opinion that he does not like the FR tonearms, for whatever reason. I am fine with that. I wish he could stop by and hear mine.

genisis,
I couldn't agree more with your observations. I discovered how sensitive my FR64S was to the positioning of the Lateral Balance weight by accident. My Final Audio Parthenon TT uses a gunmetal arm board and has no adjustment - the TT has no compliant materials in its structure and relies on precision machining of all components. One of my aftermarket custom machined arm boards was out only by a few thou of an inch and the net result was higher than expected anti skate force required. Experimenting around quickly highlighted that when the few thou error in the arm board was corrected the Lateral Balance ended up smack bang back in the recommended neutral position described in the manual and the anti skate minimal. This also suggests that the bearings in my particular sample are very sensitive.

I currently own the following arms - Eminent Technology ET2, Naim Aro, Dynavector 501, Micro Seiki MA505iii (low effective mass) and 2 Fidelity Research FR64S'.  My preferred arms for ultimate performance are the ET2 and Naim Aro, but each arm has its plus' and minus' - the results can depend very much on cartridge matching, turntable and setup and this is the point often missed. I use the FR64S with an Ikeda Kiwame and Koetsu Black. My current reference is Naim Aro/Dynavector Karat Nova 13D or Eminent Technology ET2/whatever.

Lewm,
You are absolutely correct. Oil in the bearings will increase stiction and can even degrade the sound substantially at worst. I have no issue if Raul thinks that the FR64S is the worst arm he has ever heard in his system. However as you point out he cannot possibly ascribe the poor results he has experienced in his system to an attribute of the arm unless he has deconstructed the arm and run extensive lab tests trialling changes to the arm and measuring the results to isolate what each component and design element within the arm is contributing to any resonances generated by the cartridge on playback. Even then, the results can vary depending on cartridge, set up and arm board termination. Rauls' observations are only relevant within the context of the system in which has has heard the arm. He does not seem to grasp this concept and continues to make sweeping conclusions as you have alluded to.
With my Naim Aro the arm tube is purposely undamped, the designers intent is to transfer resonances as fast as possible to the unipivot bearing, where the bearing design and low centre of gravity from the underslung counterweight are designed to add mechanical damping by about 6-8db, from whence the residual is sunk to the arm board via mechanical grounding..