New 55,000 Euro tonearm

@mikelavigne  : "  but the FCL adds more realism and expressiveness. "

Are those things what you posted here or something else?

R.

Mijostyn, you are consistent in your preference for low inertia tonearms, but we’ve mentioned before that some of the “best” cartridges are low in compliance and work best with higher inertia tonearms. So in a world where we are matching cartridges with tonearms, isn’t it a bit specious to suggest that low inertia is a quality you want in any and all tonearms, regardless? and anyway, I would agree with some others who have already pointed out that mass at or around the pivot has much less effect on inertia than mass either in the counterweight or at the cartridge/headshell end of the tonearm. I am sure you know that. So I am not sure why you keep insisting that the bearing of the SAT tonearm is per se evidence of high inertia.

@lewm 

@mijostyn is all over the place on effective mass and low compliance cartridges.

Here's what he said about the Kuzma Safir ( 60g effective mass )

I just wandered onto Kuzma's web site to check on the specs of one turntable only to be confronted with a $25,000 9 " sapphire tubed sorta 4 point arm. Looks like a winner to me. I think it is a better design than the SAT arms but then I thought the 4 Point 9 was a better design than the SAT arms. Next will be a diamond arm tube:-)

mijostyn04-06-2022 12:36pm

I can't see the SAT getting anywhere near 60g effective mass of the Safir.

He;s also had a turnaround on low compliance cartridges, After several posts insisting low compliance cartridges are no good, he is now buying a low compliance Mysoniclab.

mijostyn

6,225 posts

06-26-2022 at 04:42am 

@rsf507 , I am currently using a Soundsmith Voice through an Audio Research PH3-SE. I have a Channel D Seta L Plus coming which opens the door for very low impedance cartridge's like the MSL PS and the Lyra Atlas SL the two cartridges I am interested in most. It looks like I am going to get the MSL first. 

It just shows how much @dover knows about cartridges. The Japanese measure compliance differently than Americans and Europeans. They measure compliance at 100 Hz. We measure it at 10 Hz. You can effectively double Japanese compliance specs to compare them to Western compliance specs. Koetsus are low compliance cartridges. The MSL is a medium compliance cartridges while it is on the stiffer side of medium compliance. The Voice is 22um/mN. The MSL is effectively 20 um/mN at 10 Hz. Both use styluses with very large contact patches. The Voice tracks a 0.3 gm lighter. The Anna Diamond is another Low compliance cartridge but it also uses a stylus with the largest contact patch, over twice that of an elliptical cartridge. My arm will handle any cartridge as it has mounting plates of various masses. 

My overriding concern is record wear. The amount of resistance a stylus gives to the groove is a function of VTF, compliance and contact patch area. I do believe Soundsmith has a table of contact patch areas for the various styluses.

I understand how you got the impression of my preferences as they were previously stated in very basic form but you use that information in a malignant fashion. Perhaps you have a personality disorder and I should be understanding? As for the Safir, I was not aware of it's effective mass and assumed it was in the ballpark with the 4 Points. "Assumptions are the mother of all f-ck ups."

@lewm , Inertia and mass are two different but related issues. Low compliance cartridges need tonearms with high effective masses not high inertias. You can increase the effective mass of any arm just by adding mass to the head shell within the limits the counterbalance. This will also increase the arm's inertia. 

Mr Gomez's philosophy is that stiffness is the most crucial design characteristic of a tonearm and it certainly is important. The component parts of the SAT arm arm consequently thicker and heavier than perhaps they have to be. The price of stiffness is higher effective mass and inertia. He counters using very low mass, high quality materials. If you discount the quality of the materials and manufacture, his designs are rather mundane. I guess I am attracted to alternative thinking like you see in Kuzma, Reed and Schroder arms. I would not buy a SAT arm even if I had unlimited funds. I would get  Schroder LTs on a Dohmann Helix.

My favorite cartridges run in the medium compliance range maybe with the exception of the Anna Diamond although I lean towards the Verisimo as my favorite Ortofon. The Windfeld Ti is Ortofon's best value in a high performance cartridge.