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Should I keep my Well tempered tonearm?

I have had this arm for years. I am currently in the middle of getting an oracle Delphi MKIII. My alexandria it was on has had it, and its not logical to repair what needs replacement.

I have always had mistracking issues with this tonearm and whatever cartridge. I just sold a Grado Sonata, which may have been a mistake. I have tried multiple cartridges (read 4 different known good units) and never seem to get it right.

I ordered the protractor from stanalog because I am concerned that its incorrectly set overhang causing mistracking. When I say mistracking I mean sibalence.

I have played with every possible setting and never had it setup to my satisfaction.

Honestly, I am sick of screwing around with this arm. I am about ready to get rid of it and get something different.

The manual isn't all that great as far as installation instructions either. It lists that you mount the cart and set overhang by twisting the arm mounting until the stylus lines up with the overhang circle. This makes no sense to set overhang with an arbitrary cartridge mounting arrangement.

Sorry if this seems like a rant, but I am very frustrated and annoyed with this arm. I just want to listen to good sounding clean music. Not dirty sibalence.

Thanks guys, your input would be appreciated. I would likely have to buy an arm that is priced close to what the WTT is worth used because I won't have a ton of money left over.

Evan

BTW, I put a 10x5 on a thorens turntable and could listen to that all day compared to my setup.
240z4u
lewm
13,108 posts
 
In my experience trying to make the WT Reference tonearm work well on a WT Reference turntable, I found the arm to be almost inevitably overdamped. Even when I got it to work properly (on behalf of a dear friend who owns the set-up) the sound was dull dull dull, compared to what can be had from vinyl. That was the best case scenario. Worst case, it would not track at all. Azimuth was ever changing across the surface of the LP from outer to inner grooves. So, I am not crazy about this tonearm. Novel ideas are not always good ideas. Would not own one myself. No meanness or insult is intended.
roscoeiii's avatar
roscoeiii
1,155 posts
 
Wow Lewm,

Resurrecting an old thread. That said, this concern with the original tonearm design overdamping was what led me to pass on a used table with the original arm and go for the new golfball design found on the Amadeus and Simplex. Well worth checking out. Once dialed in I don't find this table overdamped at all.
chashas1
596 posts
 
Old indeed, but useful. The original arm will track perfectly and not be overdamped... If setup properly. Because Lewm couldn't do it on his own shows no flaw in the arm, only setup. Roscoe, drop your ball farther down into the damping fluid/cup, and you'll find out just how damped and dead you can sound, and probably mirror Lewm's experience.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,874 posts
 
I've owned the WTA arm for about 15 + years. Mine is the Black version with the dual weighting system. I use this arm on a Linn LP12 and it works like a charm.
I think the key with the arm is to set it up with about 2/3rds of the cup filled with silicone and let the paddle float just below the surface. OTOH, the azimuth adjustment is basically worthless! It will float through time and you can never get it set accurately. I re-adjust my azimuth frequently, the process is NOT fun and it's not repeatable. However, I do think this arm can and does shoot way above its rep. I have AB'ed it against an SME 1V and it was not discredited at all!
So, while the arm will work on suspended tables and does need to be set up correctly, it is like most gear out there.....great in some areas and poor in others..:0( However,you will need to spend a LOT more money to significantly better it though, IMO.
gvoth
32 posts
 
Try STP with the WT armÂ… I've used it for almost 20 years.

Bill Firebaugh says the arm already has some anti-skate built in so I always set my original WTT arm to zero. Even with my LP Labs Carbon Fiber arm upgrade, its Discovery cable wires are more thickly coated than the original Litz wiring and can influence the arm if not placed properly. I had some tracking error for a while until I noticed that the arm wires were flexing and causing too much anti-skate on the arm themselves.

Love these arms. I modded an original WT arm to the WT Simplex design esthetic and mounted it on a Neat Shield MO-19 idler. Fantastic sound. I'm now building a 12" carbon fiber WT version for the same table.
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