Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

@dogberry  Yes dogberry, distortion above a certain level is quite audible especially if it is not low order harmonic. Lower levels of distortion may be audible by people who know what to listen for. This has nothing to do with evaluating the low distortion performance of an audio system. What sounds right to some people can be woefully inaccurate. You can not trust what other people think a system sounds like unless you know that person and their system very well. Even then as @clearthinker has mention we are all subject to modifiers based on mood and internal biases that we might not even be aware of. 

Dogberry, I like both chocolate and cheese, but I am too damn fat and am desperately trying to avoid both of them. On the bright side listening to music and using my Weller soldering station do not cause weight gain.  

An audiophile is never entirely happy with their system. It is the same with racing cars, always looking for a way to go faster. Once you are totally satisfied you are not longer an audiophile. You are just a music lover. Not a bad place to be. Certainly a lot less expensive.

"What does audiophile mean?

a person who is very interested in and enthusiastic about equipment for playing recorded sound, and its quality: For an audiophile the quality of streamed music is sometimes inadequate.Feb 1, 2023"

I like both cheese and chocolate but I am too damn fat and am trying to avoid both. On the bright side playing with my Weller soldering station and listening to music are not fattening. Praise be to the lord.

If you are an opera buff then you REALLY need to go to Milan and see a show at Teatro alla Scala. It's like the Sistine Chapel for opera lovers.

Dear @clearthinker : I agree with you and for the best part with @mijostyn .

 

Well, more that twice times in this and other forums I posted that we listen/hear through all our body. This means we hear not only through the ears but through the sking nervous terminations, through the hair, through the bones, trhough our muscles and so on.

 

All those kind of sound body sensors we all have send the sound information to our neurons/brain whom along several and many of them unknowed functions ( that includes, emotion, feellings, remembrances, memories, mood handle and the like ) tell us and form a MUSIC whole scenario that could be way different of what we perceive through our ears. The " I like it " is full of misinterpretations and misunderstoods till we understand what surrounded it.

We can attend two days in a raw to listen the same score in a hall and you can be sure that exist " differences " between listen sessions .

It’s proved by science that we can " listen " over 50khz and obviously below 16hz.

 

Human been organism is extremely complex for say the least where not even the Universe is so perfect and complex for even scientifics understand it in full.

Seems to me that several or almost all discussions in audio forums are more a place not to learn but to show who is rigth or wrong when at the end almost no one is wrong but only in the obvious.

Like @clearthinker I believe too that new technology not always is better and one of several examples that could confirm that was the fail or not success of the Lasser Disc used to play LPs, where for whatever reason just disappeared after short time.

I remember that more than twice I posted that all of you could make a test in a home listening sessions where your clothe one day where made by natura fabric: cotton, silk, wool, etc, etc and other day clothing polyesther fabric and you will know something is different.

 

Same if you listen naked against with your clothe in your body, You " listen " and perceives insoun in different ways. Don’t trust in my words and make those tests with the same choosed LPs tracks.MUSIC is and art just like poetry or look a Da Vinci work or the like. So all of us react of different way to the Mona Lisa paint or Rembrandt paint or poems by you choice of poetry or to other art as sculpture.

 

That’s why we like MUSIC and what we listen through all our body in the home system or in a live event.

R.

@mijostyn has stated that along with @clearthinker, they both are aligned in their thoughts on the following,  " we are all subject to modifiers based on mood " -

Music being the stimulus that it is, and when detected being present, is going to have a effect on the mood, it is used in many situations as a method to modify a mood, and even used in conjunction with other stimulus to manipulate a mood.

Music is an attraction because of its effect on a mood, and the continued use of music is certainly one carried out with a intent to stimulate and change a mood.

Does not an 'Audiophile' have a desire to encounter mood changes as a result of a auditory stimulus?     

@mijostyn also states " An audiophile is never entirely happy with their system "

This is explained in the context of Racing Cars and the Competitive need to pursue the engineering and aerodynamic formulas to give a Team the leading edge in the competition, the want to shave a 100th of second of a Lap.

I have spent time with the best known designers/producers of HiFi Equipment on the planet, some dead now. I have witnessed on numerous occasions, content supplied by individuals who are well known and respected for their products used for the purposes of replaying music.

Never has one suggested I am to be competitive with another or the system. As a layman's description, I would say the individuals are presenting a design based on their philosophies, for what is their belief of what is a requirement for a device to function and meet a certain criteria of performance. I am sure they are appreciative of ones recognition, and the adoption of the design to be used in a system.

I have no doubts a sales person when encountered in an environment that is solely created to create revenues through sales of a particular limited range of devices will be quite keen to inject the notion of being competitive and to rise above other Brands failings, taking ones system to stratospheric levels, as a result of adopting their wares.

Has @mijostyn found this type of sales individual in their experiences and is quite influenced, using the spiel offered to extract monies, as a justification of the substantial monies spent, and is now delusional as to the real value of the parts purchased, but are happy to use the purchases as the reason to create the alter ego of being a unique type of Audiophile. It does sound more like a Equipment'o'phile, throwing oodles of $$$$$$$ at fanciful purchases.

It is amazing how a Filter Fresh Coffee. and a Plate of Exotic Confections, at the price of a few $'s, and a Clever Play on Words can transform ones budget, to finding another few hundred to few thousand $'s. The Sales Team do know a good loss leader and methods required for setting the environment for the steal.      

1st

The ViV performs in the best possible way with all cartridges we tried out.

And the best means the best.

We tried everything 

light MMs, heavy MIs, light MCs, SPUs, all kind of DS Audio

all cartridges worked better in this arm than in all "normal" contenders

 

2nd

Forget about the "angle distortion". Of course we were eager to find any

negative points with this arm. Especially in the first and last grooves we

"wanted" to hear any distortions.... but nothing, really nothing!

 

3rd

The arm uses no anti skating. There is a small bit of skating force, but this

is way smaller than in conventional tonearms. When you put the cartridge

down on a non grooved vinyl the arm moves SLOWLY to the middle. Even if

you do this to the non existent outer or inner "grooves". Do this with a

conventional arm and it will dangerously speed up.

 

4th

We compared the ViV 9" with a huge variety of conventional tonearms from

Ortofon to DaVinci, from Shindo to Ikeda. There was not one arm better than

the ViV with only even one cartridge.

 

After all these tests I sold my conventional arms of my main turntable and

now I happily live with two Rigid Floats and can only smile on discussions

like this.

:-)

@racedoc fantastic, someone who has actually done the same as me and auditioned the Viv against other arms and therefore can speak with 1st hand experience and not theory. I applaud you sir.

Naysayers take a leaf out of this book and go listen.