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Detachable Head shell or Not?

I am in the process to up my game with some phono system tweaking.

I read in these forums of many people here with multiple arms, multiple cartridges and even multiple turntables.  I am guilty of this myself but moderately compared to so many phono hardware diehards here.

All the continued comments on Talea vs. Schroeder vs. Kuzma, Da Vinci, Tri-Planar, etc., etc, on these forums.  And the flavor of the day cartridge.  One easy way to manage the use of many cartridges, easily swapping between them, and getting down to one turntable would be to run with a tonearm that supports removable head shells or arm tubes.  And yet this does not seem to be widely done here.  Is everybody just too proud of all the pretty phono hardware to admire?

Many highly respected arms of the past, FR 64/66, Ikeda, and now Glanz, Kuzma 4-Point, the new Tru-Glider, all with removable heads.  And the Graham and Da Vinci with removable arm tubes.  These products have a huge fan base and yet there seems to be an equal number of those against any extra mechanical couplings and cable junction boxes, din connections, etc.

I can appreciate having two cartridges, one to bring out that addictive lush bloomy performance and another that shows off that clarity and detail “to die for”.  Being able to easily swap between the two, with hopefully only a quick VTF/VTA change, would be mighty nice.  If too painful a process, I can understand the need for two arms here;  like the idea of going through many LPs in an evening and not being obsessed with tweaking the arm for each.  I hope I never get obsessed to do get to that point.  But for different days/nights, to listen to different kinds of music, it could be mighty nice to swap out one cartridge for another in different head shells without the added cluster and cost of oh please, not another tonearm!.  Do a minute or two of tweaking, ONCE, for that listening session, and then enjoy.  There is always the added risk during the uninstall / install process to damage that prized cartridge.

Is running with a tonearm that has a detachable head shell all that sinful / shameful in the audiophile world ……. or not?  I’d like to hear from those who have achieved musical bliss with removable head shell arms and also from those that if asked to try such a product would likely say, “over my dead body”!

John

jafox
pindac's avatar
pindac
2,864 posts
 

I have a custom built tonearm, that is a complete reworking of a known brands model.

This arm has a SME type detachable headshell and during my discussions over a few years with the arms engineer who has carried out the modifications, the design weakness has always been the Detachable Headshell, but the convenience and ease of use has been the reason to maintain it.

Very recently the arm engineer has produced a upgrade detachable Headshell for the arm, that has a much improved coupling to the Wand.

Shortly before the Festive Season, I was given a demonstration of the Original vs New Design, and the difference in improvement was not subtle, it was the cherry on the cake, for the modifications.

Just a slight rethink of the mechanics of the interface and coupling method has brought about very noticeable improvements, with similar levels of convenience maintained for the exchanges if needed.  

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 

A nice orderly sane discussion :-) i have fixed but …..my wandering eye is on a TT with two arms…single shot and a gattling gun…

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

@frogman, ))))) I even totally rewired a Conrad Johnson preamp putting it in a new chassis with all silver wire. There was only a volume control. I only played records at the time. Sure it sounded better, but I have no way of separating psychology from reality. It was a fun exercise. I no longer do those things because equipment is so expensive and you don't want to remove value. I still insist on a fixed headshell and continuous tone arm wiring clips to RCAs or XLRs. By fixed I mean no SME plug in. I consider Schroder's plate and Kuzma's head shell fixed designs as both are screwed solidly to the tonearm. 

The reality here is that none of really knows what the sonic advantages or disadvantages are as doing that comparison test is difficult at best. So, all we have is theory and some of us are happy ignoring theory for convenience. Which to me means they are not true audiophiles. They might as well get an old Dual changer:)))  

 

lewm
13,021 posts
 

+2 to Frogman. The best connector is no connector at all. IME, the worst sounding connectors have been those that are massive and pretentious. If I must use a connector, I use low mass types, like KLE.

frogman
7,441 posts
 

mijostin, my most ambitious mod was a complete rebuild of the crossovers (internal and external) and all wiring in a pair of Magnepan MGIIIA’s with high quality and bypassed caps and air core inductor coils; some of the best available at the time. All in an external finished wood box (see through acrylic cover, of course 😊), no fuses and all rewired with Cardas (regret that one) internal hook up wire. Not a single one of those nasty steel connectors that they use (d?); and of course, no socks. I’m sure that all seems like child’s play compared to what some of the esteemed contributors here are capable of, but I was pretty proud of that one. To this day, in many ways the best sound from any of the systems that I have had. In the loft space that they lived in the soundstage was simply phenomenal; huge, well proportioned with great sense of depth. Incredibly, well defined bass down to about 28 hertz, as measured. For orchestral music, I have heard few that got it so close to right. Miss those speakers.

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