Right. Ralph I think he means "abilities" but whatever. There are facets of this issue I think we can all agree on.
The best tonearms follow a record's undulations without disturbing the function of the cartridge.
There are cartridges that are better trackers but a bad tonearm will interfere with that capability.
A tonearm's effective mass including that of the cartridge and screws has to be matched to the compliance of the cartridge resulting in a resonance frequency between 8 and 12 Hz.
Fluid damping of the tonearm can be useful if the Q of the resonance frequency is high or if the resonance frequency is out of band.
So, what does all this add up to? Everyone has to make up their own mind but, I think it is pretty obvious that you can not just jamb any cartridge into an arm and expect it to work well.
My own interpretation of this is; you want a tonearm cartridge combination with a low moment of inertia as it will follow the undulations of the record surface better. Added to this should be a camping system that flattens the record such as reflex or vacuum clamping.
In keeping with low inertia you want a tonearm with a low effective mass.
I personally would not do anything over 18.
You want a cartridge that tracks well that has a compliance that matches the effective mass of the arm. I personally will not look anything under
80um.
Finally if a tonearm has an available damping trough that is an added benefit (it has to be both horizontal and vertical) I would not use it unless it was absolutely necessary.
The best tonearms follow a record's undulations without disturbing the function of the cartridge.
There are cartridges that are better trackers but a bad tonearm will interfere with that capability.
A tonearm's effective mass including that of the cartridge and screws has to be matched to the compliance of the cartridge resulting in a resonance frequency between 8 and 12 Hz.
Fluid damping of the tonearm can be useful if the Q of the resonance frequency is high or if the resonance frequency is out of band.
So, what does all this add up to? Everyone has to make up their own mind but, I think it is pretty obvious that you can not just jamb any cartridge into an arm and expect it to work well.
My own interpretation of this is; you want a tonearm cartridge combination with a low moment of inertia as it will follow the undulations of the record surface better. Added to this should be a camping system that flattens the record such as reflex or vacuum clamping.
In keeping with low inertia you want a tonearm with a low effective mass.
I personally would not do anything over 18.
You want a cartridge that tracks well that has a compliance that matches the effective mass of the arm. I personally will not look anything under
80um.
Finally if a tonearm has an available damping trough that is an added benefit (it has to be both horizontal and vertical) I would not use it unless it was absolutely necessary.