The Schroeder has arrived


My Schroeder Reference arrived over the holiday weekend. It has been a long wait but looks to be well worth it. The fit and finish on this tonearm is a work of art. The adjustments are actually very simple compared to many arms. Most adjustments are just a slight turn of a set screw. The arm sounds incredible. I have heard others say effortless. That seems pretty good to me as words really cannot describe how good this sounds in my system. I am still in the process of fine tuning and the wire is still breaking in so I guess it will probably sound even better. I am using a Shelter 901 on it and that seems to match up well. BTW, if anyone is looking to buy a Schroeder I would strongly suggest working with Thom at Galibier Design. He kept in contact with me throughout the lengthy waiting period and was excellent with the delivery and setup. I would though be interested to hear from any others that may have this tonearm and their thoughts on some of the cartridges that are a good match.
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Sirspeedy I don't think I'm qualified to advise you. However I went back to the spreadsheet and that cartridge in tigerwood/jacaranda gives a resonant frequency of 8.66 Hz. The ideal range "green zone" is 9 to 11 Hz, however on AJ Van den Hul's site, the 'yellow zone' is 8 to 12 Hz.

On that basis, I reckon either of those are viable.

I was tempted by bocote for my Reference but checking out the pics on Thom's site, I don't like the look of the wood. I also looked at the cartridges that it would allow me to run and, in reality, everything I would want to play with (Koetsus, DL-103 and Dyna XX-2) work better in a 15g armwand. I like the look of jacaranda over tigerwood, so that's what I'm getting.

You have to remember that it's not just the cartridge mass, but also the compliance that counts. Low compliance favors higher mass tonearms.

If you're thinking of buying a Schroeder, if you order now you'll be lucky to take delivery this year. I reckon that's far enough away for you to enjoy a state of the art tennis racket this season and still be able to pay for your arm when it's ready in the new year!

Put your order down, you know it makes sense! :-)
(Disclaimer: No commercial relationship with any of the above - just an impressionable audiophile).
Hi guys,
Recently I had the opportunity to measure f-res of a TemperV in a 14gr. Tigerwood armwand and it came out to be 10,5Hz. Just goes to show you that published specs don't always correlate with actual measurements, just as , for quite some time, most samples of the Denon DL103 seem to have a higher compliance than the published spec(5cu). In reality, the last three samples that went through my hands were closer to 8cu.

Cheerio,

Frank
Sirspeedy:

It was never my intent to obtain your home address. I was simply interested in finding out if there were any audiophile clubs/groups in my neck of the woods. By the way, I spent most of my formative years in Brooklyn

George
Hi all,

The whole res. freq. thing is certainly intriguing. Keep in mind that you can go a bit lower than the 10hz number depending on the turntable you're running.

This 10-12Hz range was arrived at as a means of splitting the difference between 20 Hz and the res. freq. of a typical turntable's suspension (3-5 Hz). With an unsuspended 'table you can go a bit lower.

Having said that, a Benz LP is a poor match for both the MX-282 and an 18 gram Ebony arm wand Schroeder Reference. In both arms it is a bit sluggish sounding. OTOH, it sounds very nice in a Triplanar with its lower effective mass.

Cheers,
Thom
Dear friends: I already post in the past: I try to match cartridges/tonearms combinations with out take in count their resonance frecuency and till to now I 'm sucess about.

I'm not saying that the resonance frecuency is not important, it is but there are many issues others than the resonance frecuency that define the quality sound reproduction of " that " combination.

I can tell you many examples, one of them: the Ortofon MC 2000 is 11gr./20cu and I try with severals tonearms and with a very high mass SAEC tonearm was its best sound/match ( resonance frecuency: 4.5Hz ), right now I'm trying the MC 2000 with another high mass tonearm: Dynavector DV-505.

So, we have not to be " crazy " to meet exactly the resonance frecuency for an excellent performance.

When I ask to Jan Allaerts about the compliance of the MC2 Finish Gold for I can match with a tonearm, here is his answer:

+++++ " Hi Raul,,



The compliance from our cartridges is not relevant, if you have a good arm and turntable , you can track 300 µmm, with this cartridge so if you calculate and project this to compliance you get 70 but nobody believe that so, the important thing is the arm can work with cartridges from 10 Gr mass and more,

Second if you build in the cartridge set in full parallel to the record, first after ( with 180 our 200 Gr vinyl ) you listen to voice on a record and put the arm a little higher no lower settings and adjust you have the most air our room around the voice that play, that is the point you leave it normal is this 1 our 2 mm higher ( NO MORE )



Regards



Jan " +++++

I try my MC2 with seven tonearms and the best match is with the SME IV.

My experience tell me that there are some " things " that I can't explain in full scientific way or common sense about the " irrelevant " resonance frecuency issue: the MC 2000 example is not the only one: I test a cartridge/tonearm combination that its resonance frecuency is 10Hz and sounds only good and the same cartridge with other tonearm with 6Hz resonance frecuency sounds excellent. This can tell me that the resonance frecuency can be only that a: resonance frecuency value.

So, Sirspeedy/Flyingred: don't worry too much about. There are other issues that defines the sound reproduction quality: cartridge frecuency response, load impedance, tonearm energy dissipation, tonearm ringing, tonearm vibrational damping, tonearm wiring, tonearm bearing or not bearing, arm board, TT, phono preamp accuracy, etc, etc, ....

Btw, Thom my LP never sound better than with my MAX 282. We have differents experiences with the same cartridge and one of the reasons is that we have differents audio systems and maybe differents music/sound reproduction priorities.

The stereo home music/sound reproduction is a very complex process that have many " sides/faces ", that's is what do so interesting and always a challenge.
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Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.