Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

@clearthinker @atmasphere 

The hardness of the metal in the bearing is not the only issue.  The fineness of the machining is fundamental.

And let’s not forget materials such as the yoke etc. as some materials reflect energy while others may absorb.

@mijostyn 

twist your cartridge 5 degrees in the head shell and listen to what happens. If you hear nothing wrong either your system or your head does not image.

For purposes of discovery, I’m curious what the result would be with a spherical/conical styli without skating forces acting upon it ? ? ?

As the saying goes, “maybe we’re measuring the wrong thing” if the numbers don’t justify the sonic results.

Is it possible that an established priority of setup parameters could be threatened  &/or reshuffled?

Booth, Not sure what you mean.  A spherical tip still generates a skating force, if that is what you're suggesting.

lewm, I guess I’m curious to discuss if the more linear (skating) underhung/zero offset variety behaves more like a tangential (no skating) scenario.

There is only a single null-point of tangency with the Viv, but the firsthand reports I’ve received indicate the sound is “in the window” or locked-in throughout it’s entire arc.

I greatly appreciate your insight and objective approach, just trying to quantify the positive of what’s occurring with this tonearm which I understand is rather successful in its homeland.

The interest of a conical profile is to nullify zenith issues.

@boothroyd , the problem is the same although the conical styluses inferior high frequency performance might make the problem less severe, so won't presbycusis. 

Sound quality is a relative thing and depends on what a person is sensitive to or is use to hearing. The Viv arms errors change quite dramatically across the record and will be minimal somewhere in the middle of the record where it should sound fine. It also skates as @lewm related, outward at the beginning of the record to neutral near tangency back to outward at the end. The Reed 5A and the Schroder LT very near tangency across the entire record and very near zero skating across the entire record. The trade off is an elevated vertical bearing and an additional horizontal bearing for the Schroder and several additional bearings for the Reed which is why I favor the Schroder. One has to admit that a properly designed offset pivoted arm is a brilliant solution to the problem as it minimizes all the errors and can eliminate some of them. 

In short if the Viv arm sounds OK these other arms are going to sound even better. Some very smart men like those at SME, AJ Conte, Edgar Villchur , Frank Kuzma, Frank Schroder, Mark Gomez and others would never design an arm like the Viv.