Dear friends: I'm with @mijostyn conclusion in this specific regards.
I owned several unipivots and I still have one from Grace and what for me is the best unipivot: Satin and I think that I still have one from Stax ( I think is unipivot. ). I owned Moerch, Audiocraft and other, not any more.
I have to say that under specific and controled circumstances Unipivots could sound pretty decent.
Normally I don't recomend to any audiophile that can goes with unipivot tonearms.
The real problem with unipivots is not only what we can " see " but what we can't " see " and that's happening at microscopic land down in the cartridge/tonearm grooves tracking where the stylus tip it's figth really hard against the grooves thatneeds to track and where in motion that stylus tip is disturbed for very strong developed forces in almost all directions along all the LP imperfections.
To achieve a decent job down there that stylus tip needs stability, the kind of stability a gimball tonearm can gives to it and that an unipivot can't.
Normally the LP grooves are recorded at different velocities depening of the score and in the high velocity grooves the stylus tip is literally jumping ( sometimes we listen that distortion level and sometimes we don't but exist. ) an unipivot only makes things worst.
Gimball tonearm permits to avoid that " behavior "? certainly not but helps in better way to that cartridge stylus tip to track in way better way and this is very important when we listen the reproduced sound by that cartridge.
Someone measured what happens down there and its differences between using a gimball tonearm against an unipivot? not that I know about.
The kind of question like in this thread in reallity it's open to each one way of thinking.
My experiences in " hundreds " of systems tells me gimball is the road to go " safety ".
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
I owned several unipivots and I still have one from Grace and what for me is the best unipivot: Satin and I think that I still have one from Stax ( I think is unipivot. ). I owned Moerch, Audiocraft and other, not any more.
I have to say that under specific and controled circumstances Unipivots could sound pretty decent.
Normally I don't recomend to any audiophile that can goes with unipivot tonearms.
The real problem with unipivots is not only what we can " see " but what we can't " see " and that's happening at microscopic land down in the cartridge/tonearm grooves tracking where the stylus tip it's figth really hard against the grooves thatneeds to track and where in motion that stylus tip is disturbed for very strong developed forces in almost all directions along all the LP imperfections.
To achieve a decent job down there that stylus tip needs stability, the kind of stability a gimball tonearm can gives to it and that an unipivot can't.
Normally the LP grooves are recorded at different velocities depening of the score and in the high velocity grooves the stylus tip is literally jumping ( sometimes we listen that distortion level and sometimes we don't but exist. ) an unipivot only makes things worst.
Gimball tonearm permits to avoid that " behavior "? certainly not but helps in better way to that cartridge stylus tip to track in way better way and this is very important when we listen the reproduced sound by that cartridge.
Someone measured what happens down there and its differences between using a gimball tonearm against an unipivot? not that I know about.
The kind of question like in this thread in reallity it's open to each one way of thinking.
My experiences in " hundreds " of systems tells me gimball is the road to go " safety ".
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.