Comparison of sonic qualities of some tonearms

Dear @drbond : Even today there are only a few audiophiles with knowledge level on the " fine/critical points " in tonearms design, few know what to look for and that’s why not only in this forum but in other audio forums the tonearm comparisons or threads about tonearms are so low. Tonearm threads came/comes when appears a " new kid in the street " as happened with the SAT or in its times the Graham or the Schroder and the like.

I learned through the years and through first hand experiences some critical subjects of those tonearm fine points " I mentioned.

My first tonearms were unipivots in the 70’s by Grace, Audiocraft, Exel, AT, Stax the Moerch copycat by Highphonic and the Moerch too and even the Graham, Magnepan, Mayware.

After all those years I learned about the " brutal " unstability of unipivots that goes totally against the cartridge tracking those " Everest " recording grooves.

So I changed to gimbal Grace tonearms, Audio Technica, Denon, Technics, Satin, Fidelity Research,Dynavector, Mission The Mechanic, the Breuer copycat manufactured by Jelco: Sumiko The Arm, EMT, Ortofon, SME, the doiuble knife bearing SAEC’s, Victor, Sony.

Btw, owning over 150 MC/MM/MI top vintage and toiday top cartridges.

From those first hand experiences came/comes my own design but more important to have very clear where in the " hell " is or are the " secrets " where in reality there are no secrets at all.

I agree with @mijostyn and disagree with you in those statements:

 

" The difference in sound quality is so slight ..."

 

and yours:

 

" I would say that a tonearm is capable of making as significant a difference as a pre-amplifier, or phono stage can make. "

 

I think that you need to re-read my first post here where I refered to :

 

" the overall tonearm damping specially at the headshell where the issue is to " stop " the return/feedback resonances/vibrations that the cantilever will takes as fake modulations that the transducer works with. "

 

@viridian has a very good point about when posted:

 

" you cannot compare arms by setting them up with the same cartridges, because different cartridges put different amounts of energy back into the tonearm, at different frequencies, ..."

 

Now, if the tonearm design is a well damped one that tonearm ( everything the same ) differences against other well damped tonearms will be as mijos posted and if your first hand experiences did/does not showed/shows that it means that one of those 2 tonearms are already off or out to be a well damped design.

 

Your statement confirms our audiophile low knowledge level on tonearms other that the usual " I like it ":

 

" because very few even discuss tonearms in these threads. "

 

I think that in this tonearm topic all of us, inluding me, need to learn deeper to undestand the overall tonearm subject you brougth in this thread and in the OP you confirm it:

 

" new to the world of vinyl, listening seriously for probably only 2 years "

 

I learned in audio that does not exist money that can buy ( no matters what ) high knowledge levels in any audio subject: We have to experienced

 

Tonearm is a " slave " of the cartridge and any today design must be designed to fulfill the cartridge needs , not of any particular cartridge but any cartridge. There are several vintage tonearms that makes that as the Technics EPA-100 MK2 .

 

R.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ha. We had to listen to a few things that Max wanted to hear, including Patto on Vertigo. No problem. Queen sounded pretty spectacular- they made some killer sounding records at their peak and I hadn't listened to them in years. I did play the Patricia track from Art Pepper Today with Cecil McBee-- classic west coast bop, but we didn't go too deep into the jazz stuff. Thank you for the nice words on  TVP-- I've neglected it for a year, and that "stylus life" article by Mike Bodell has a long tail, as does Neil Antin's work on record cleaning. I hope to soon get back to writing. Max has nice things to say about you. 

Dear @whart  : Kuzma 14" 4Point that is an unipivot especial design obviously that what showed  was: "  the differences in cartridges ". I listened to both MSL instead AT and the Blue Lace and are really different performers. I can see that you like the stone Koetsu's , good. Only an appreciation: midrange depends of bass management and its bass harmonics development.

@viridian  Do you know which the Koetsu compliance levels? A medium EM tonearm range is around: 10grs-20gr. I owned vintage and today Koetsu that I do not need it a high EM tonearm because I always was in the 7hz-8hz to 10hz-12hz

resonance FR, that is the range that I like to run my cartridges in that issue.

R.

@rauliruegas

Your statements presume complete knowledge of a subject. I suppose it could be analogous to someone who has driven a Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Infiniti, Honda, Acura, Ford, Dodge, and Chevrolet commenting how all cars are pretty much the same. Perhaps…or perhaps a Porsche or Ferrari actually do drive better, and are a markedly different experience to drive.