Tri planar and shelter 901 and Verdier

Hello Tenmus,

Raul's suggestion is very good. Verdier should be able to help with mounting the arm.

As far as I can tell the dampening fluid is optional and is provided for those who prefer a slightly less dynamic presentation.

DougDeacon has written a very informative thread about setting up and using the TriPlanar. A search here will quickly pull it up.

Tenmus,

1. If your Verdier's armboard isn't drilled for the TriPlanar then it needs to be. The arm comes with a jig that positions the three holes for the mounting screws. Whoever is drilling the armboard will need that jig and the TriPlanar manual, to make sure they're using the jig right.

Depending on the hardness of your armboard material you may want to have the holes tapped for the machine screws that come with the arm. The cocabolo armboard of my Teres is hard enough to be tapped with fine threads. This results in superior coupling of arm to table.

BTW, I placed washers on the screws before tightening them down, to prevent scratching the mounting plate.

2. Once the arm is mounted, set the pivot-to-spindle dimension to the specified 233.5mm. The pivot point on a TriPlanar is very easy to identify. You can lay a ruler directly across from spindle to pivot to confirm the mounting distance.

3. After that, follow the instructions in the TriPlanar manual. They're well-written, fairly complete and presented in a sensible order.

4. Mount and align your 901 using the TriPlanar's enclosed mounting protractor, unless you have something better for Baerwald alignment. (The only one I know of that's better is a Wally Tractor.)

5. Most Shelter users tend to like a SLIGHTLY tail-down attitude, so that might be a good place to begin for arm height.

5. Some of the ideas on the thread mentioned by Dan_Ed fall into the realm of "tweaking", but a couple could be considered vital safety measures. None of them are covered in the TriPlanar manual, so it's worth checking that thread. Here's a link:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1117142645&read&keyw&zztriplanar+tips

6. The silicone damping fluid is definitely optional, and few if any owners that I know actually use it. I certainly don't. It softened dynamics and muddied the sound on every cartridge we tried it with (Shelter 901 and six or seven ZYX's). I'd suggest getting to know the arm and its sound well before bothering. (I'd actually suggest not trying it at all, but I know you will! But I predict you'll end up cleaning the trough out anyway.)

Good luck and enjoy!

Thank you Dan and Doug for your answers.

Dan I have a question for you:

If the tone arm is mounted exactly at the good place with the jig ,isn't the pivot- to spindle distance automatically the good one?

Does it mean that on the TriPlanar you can move the armwand forward or backward to modifie this distance when the toearm is soon fixed?

Thanks

Hi Tenmus,

Doug is the really the more experienced with this tonearm, I'm still looking at mine in the box. Perhaps he will chime in when the fog of Christmas Cheer has worn off. In the mean time, I'll try to fight through the fog.

From the directions and looking at the way the jig is used I would say that the pivot-to-spindle distance is set if the jig is held securely while marking for the mounting holes.

As for moving the armwand forward or backward I would not do that since you would change the effective length of the arm. I'm not sure if you are asking this question because you are worried about the armboard being too far away from the platter? I do not have hands-on experience with the Verdier but it does look to me that the armboard can be turned closer to platter by loosening the mounting bolt. You would probably want to loosen that bolt while you line up the Triplanar jig. Once you get the holes properly aligned on the armboard then I would carefully snug down the bolt to hold it in place while you mark the mounting holes for the arm. Turning the armboard will give the same effect you are looking for without changing the armtube length.

Please note that I'm going on pictures of your table so check this all out for yourself before doing anything permanent. I'm guessing that I'm close to how this should work as there has to be a way to mount 9" and 12" arms on that table.

At this level I think professional installation might be the way to go.