Trans-Fi Terminator Tonearm: 2019 Update
@dover It’s funny your mentioning high humidity in NZL. I had the impression, mistaken of course, that it was cold and dry down under ( all those Lord of The Rings movies ). I just checked and relative humidity in the 70’s - 80’s, similar to where I am! BTW, I follow a NZL blog started by this guy, Owen, Dark Lantern, https://darklanternforowen.wordpress.com/. He is an advocate for the Trans - Fi Terminator. Learnt a lot from the site. I get the sense that there are quite a few adopters of the Terminator over there. I would think the same for the ET arm? |
@ledoux1238 Yes there were quite a few ET2’s in the mid 80’s here. There are a few Transfi Terminators - I think primarily because the entry level price was quite modest and accessible compared to the ET2 which is quite rare now. Unfortunately Owen passed away in a cycling accident a couple of weeks ago, but his son is going to continue the administration of the blog site. He was a keen DIY audiophile and respected in the audio community here. |
'Unfortunately Owen passed away in a cycling accident a couple of weeks ago,..' OMG !!!!! It was Owen's posts and his custom arm board for the Terminator that convinced me to take the plunge and adopted the arm. We exchanged emails a couple of times. He was always gracious in his reply. What a strange day this has turned out to be with such a sad news. The fragility of life is all around us. |
Hi guys, I promised to report on the sound I am getting with my new Terminator from Andrey ( https://www.musicfromvinyl.shop/ ). I have a large record collection of mostly classical records and opera. A lot of vocal, choral and chamber music. And a lot of recordings of pipe organs. You may remember that before the Terminator I had two Clearaudio TT2 arms. Before those I had the predecessor TQI. Twenty years of Clearaudio happiness. The TT2 concept is also used in the TT1 MI in the Clearaudio Statement turntable. I have a Clearaudio DaVinci and a Goldfinger Statement (GFS) cartridge. I bought the Terminator to play other cartridges, and because I like mechanical things and wanted an affordable air bearing arm. I started with the DaVinci because my intention is to replace the DaVinci with another cartridge, perhaps a Miyajima mono cartridge. The DaVinci sounded so good in the Terminator that I swapped in the GFS. WOW! The largest improvements have been the sense of soundstage and space around voices and instruments and the quiet background. I thought the TT2 was very good, but the Terminator blows it away. My room ( https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/9362 ) was built for great sound and it has not disappointed. But the music never really filled the room. The horns are position sensitive and have a relatively small sweet spot. Now the room is alive and sounds good everywhere. In comparison, it is 4D vs 3D. Same turntable, same cartridge (GFS), same arm cable. A very impressive achievement, IMHO. The “flow” of the music is more real, more lifelike; the musicians are in the room with you. Bass is better and more lifelike. Everything is more clear and more precisely located in space. Choral music is uncanny. Are you getting the idea that I am thrilled? I need to give credit to the rest of my system and the room, but it was the Terminator that turned the corner and brought out the best. I am ordering a second Terminator arm. Both arms will mount on my turntable and rotate away from the platter to change records. Best,Don |
