Schroeder vs. Triplanar VII Sonic Differences

Sorry!I did forget to mention(to be fair)that the ONLY time there was any "sticking" problems,in the Air Tangent,was when the owner was remiss in the regular maintenance cycle.Which was not an overtly significant amount.Also,he only started to get "lazy" about this,when he realized he wanted to cut out maintenance completely,and go the pivot route.Partly due to the influence of mutual friends,owning the newer arm,and touting how good it was.Sound familiar?It's just human nature,I guess!BTW--I'm going to hear it in about three weeks,so will know,for sure,if the linear tracker has been superceded by a better "mouse trap"!

I STILL would own a Kuzma Airline if circumstances permitted me to attribute the effort.I just love the challenge,knowing what I have heard,or at least thought I heard, with a great linear tracker.All compared to the previous,well regarded pivots that my friend owned,before the Air Tangent.Though I STILL feel,based upon my own conjecture,that a Shroeder Ref. would be supremely close.

That being said,the Air Tangent has "stuck",on occassion.No apparent harm to the cartridge,but "not fun"!

Also,Thom is BIG TIME right about the dangers of a perifery clamp.To take it one step further,what if your fingers slipped when placing it down(I believe it requires a two handed grip).These things are heavy!We are talking about "taking out" the arm/cartridge,and a nice gash in your cute table.Definitely NOT for me!

Best!

Hi George,

I am glad, I did go for it. Superior information in all Frequency areas, perfect cartridge alignment and a soundstage to die for.
For me, that's a REALLY good tonearm.

Hi Thom,

I owned an ET 2.5 for many years. The only real maintenance that it required was cleaning the manifold with alcohol every six months or so. If I forgot to do the maintenance, the tonearm would start skipping at the end of LPs where the music went in close to the label. No damage done to the LP or cartridge that I could discern. On the other hand aligning cartridges was a breeze on the ET 2.5. Since I swap cartridges many times over a six month period, I would gladly clean the manifold if I did not have to agonize over adjusting alignment with each cartridge change.

I would love to have a linear tracker again. The Kuzma air bearing is on my dream list. Guess I will just have to live with my VPI 12.5 and Schroeder Reference until I win the lotto.

With regards to periphery clamps I understand your concern. I would not want to own a TT with a vacuum holddown for fear of the needle getting caught between the outer edge of the LP and the rubber surround. Talked to a SOTA owner that had his cantilever natched out of the cartridge when that happened. On the other hand, not all periphery rings are created alike. I own one that is manufactured by Rudolf A. Bruil, of the Netherlands. This periphery ring sits on top of the LP and the inner most part of it sits slightly above the LP. As you feared, in the semi-dark I did drop the tonearm too far out and the stylus dropped onto the rotating metal periphery ring. No damage done. The stylus stayed on top of the metal ring as it rotated until I lifted the arm up and moved it closer to the spindle. Even if I had knocked the stylus off of the ring, it still could not have gotten wedged between the metal and the LP as the inner edge of the ring is raised above the LP.

Hi all,

Separate from any perceived cartridge safety issues relating to failure modes of linear trackers, I think that the curious audiophile (one who is mechanical and handy) will get a real kick out of owning an ET-2 for 6 months to a year.

This arm could up being a "keeper" arm for you. I have to wonder how much better an Air Tangent or a Kuzma really is than an ET-2. I suspect that the order of magnitude will be on the order of a shift from a Schröder Model-2 up to a Reference ... just a guess.

Upon initial inspection, the arm looks to be flimsy in several areas. Bruce T. did a masterful job in designing this arm however, and the whole is FAR GREATER than the sum of its parts.

Of course, in buying an arm like this used, it may likely have changed hands numerous times. There are a few screws which are threaded into the composite material, and a careless user may have stripped some of these.

None of this is intended to scare you off. I have not performed heavy research on replacements for the Wisa pump, but the information is out there on the web for those so inclined. I've never been inclined to run an air tool compressor in the garage to run mine, although I had installed an air regulator along with a higher (30 psi) pump.

In answer to one question - Yes, I ran a filter and a surge tank with my rig.

I think that Bruce is correct in that the higher pressure doesn't do much here, but bear in mind that I've made numerous improvements in my turntable design in the three years since I owned this arm. Perhaps I would hear a greater improvement today if I were to compare standard (3-4 psi) pump with a higher pressure pump (30-35 psi).

One experienced user I know commented that with arms having the higher pressure manifold, as you increase the pressure to the 30-35 psi range, that there's some "blow back". As the stylus reaches the runnout groove, it gets pushed back toward the beginning of the record - of course skippin as it moves.

I never exceeded 25 pounds, due to the amount of pressure that my regulator bled off.

He comments that orienting the arm laterally so that it doesn't get as close to the exit solves this. The problem is that you don't have much of lateral travel adjustment to work with. I think this borders on the extreme behavior side of things.

I never experienced extreme angst when using the arm, but the idea of having 35 grams of lateral mass decide to stop moving did cause me to take pause.

Worse I think than the horizontal limitation (where you'd experience skipping over the same groove) would be the arm freezing up in the vertical plane - when coupled with a record that is warped. I can envision a bottomed out cantilever. With a design like the ET-2 if the arm were to freeze in place, it would stick in both planes of movement.

Now, the field experience tells us that this is all a minimal risk. Perhaps I'm a weenie.

The new owner of an ET-2 should perform a practice setup with a DISPOSABLE cartridge. Your first try at getting perfect level will be an experience you will not forget. Leveling with a bubble level should be considered as a first (and very rough) approximation. The arm itself is the best device to use as a level.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier