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Comparison of sonic qualities of some tonearms

I’m relatively new to the world of vinyl, listening seriously for probably only 2 years.  Of course, many big picture items (e.g. turntable, phono stage, cartridges) are discussed extensively on this forum, but I haven’t seen much discussion comparing different tonearms.  I would be interested to hear about different people’s experiences with different tonearms, mentioning the audible advantages and disadvantages of each tonearm, realizing that there is no perfect sound, although from what I read about others’ experiences, SAT tonearms may come closest, albeit at a very high price.  

drbond
pindac's avatar
pindac
2,864 posts
 

'Affect Sound Quality' , is quite different to 'how it sounds'.

Tonearm will impact on the sound the Cart' is able to produce, and certainly has the possibility to Influence Tone and dare I say Timbre. 

 

lewm
13,254 posts
 

dogberry, A "scientific" approach is only possible if you have a calibrated instrument that does the listening itself.  Which of course is not going to fly.  In the end, we are stuck with subjective impressions.  This is why I said from the get-go that good judgements can best be made by a single listener in the context of his or her own home system.  After that, your construction of how to do the "unscientific" experiment works fine.  And, as I have said more than once, I have the wherewithal to do the experiment in my home.  Been doing it in fact for several years.  All I am left with are vague generalities, e.g., Triplanar is very good.  So is Fidelity Research FR64S in my hands, although some do not like it based on principles. Not going to mention the Viv Float.

pindac's avatar
pindac
2,864 posts
 
"It is highly unusual for anyone to have two of exactly the same turntables"
 
I feel a little silly now, I have a selection of pairings of same model TT’s, I thought this was a requirement to have a Stereo set up.
I’ve been thinking that Mono is much more common than Stereo, when seeing all those single TT’s in use 🤡
dogberry
693 posts
 

The difficult part is to get both records to start playing exactly in sync for stereo.....

The really funny part is that I once did exactly that to compare two cartridges mounted on the same arm on the same tables.

pindac's avatar
pindac
2,864 posts
 

I used to run the Vinyl Album and CD Album as Parallel Timed to be useful. Switching Selector and a Tweak to the VC to compare Digital Source to Analogue Source.

This one is no longer necessary but visitors are always keen to hear two sources so this is usually their first introduction prior to selecting a few tracks they know well.

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