Kuzma 4Point Tri-Planar


Does anyone have direct experience with these two tonearms? I own Tri-Planar, I love it and would like to add either 4Point or Graham to use with Orpheus. Thanks!
mgerhardt
The Triplanar is a good Arm from design and sonic quality. The Graham is superior with most cartridges, with very intelligent solutions to push the sonic curtain and top performing even with heavy cartridges. The Kuzma 4P is a soft sounding Arm, an excellent choice for very harsh and analytic sounding Systems. It also hides very successful internal vibrations from average turntable designs, the other 2 are more sensitive to that. The Graham can build a very precise and accurate Soundstage with sharp focussed detail and holographic body. The 4P is more like a wall of sound, just different, not really comparable. I go for performance, but when someone chooses something based on feeling, give it a try.
Some time ago one of my customers went from a Triplanar to a 4Point and upon hearing the first few notes exclaimed the 4Point did exactly what he had hoped for. Contrary to the assertions above, it is not soft sounding nor to my knowledge has ever been described that way, certainly not when compared with the Triplanar which is rather romantic and has slightly plump bass. I encourage all interested to hear the 4Point for themselves, either at a dealer with it on demo or at CES/THE Show in January.
Thanks Syntax and Essentialaudio.

I would agree with the Tri-Planar being "romantic" and "(having) slightly plump bass". With my ZYX it's sound is exactly as romantic and plump as I want it to be. The Tri-Planar, for me, is a keeper.
But I may want to get something like BM LP-S in future and based on some readings, I'm getting the impression that T-P could be a bit too much of a good thing.
One should watch out not to ascribe sonic signatures of other (cartridge, misalignment, cable and rest of audio chain) components to the tonearm.
I have had the 4Point and sold it early 2010 to the USA.
It is a good, but not outstanding tonearm.
While it does feature some interesting design points, it is not the last word in resolution nor in transient speed.
In general it does indeed a good job of dampening resonances and thus sounding a bit more forgiving - resulting in soften edges and lack of ultra low resolution/detail.
The Triplanar is similar in his behavior - but not as forgiving.
The 4Point won't tell anything new versus the Triplanar.

The Graham Phantom does a better job regarding transparency and low level resolution. It's transient transfer is much faster and thus the Phantom sounds more live-like and gives superior detail and "air".
It is a very good match for any ZYX.
Thanks Dertonarm!

By the sound of it, the Phantom will be exactly the type of tonearm I'd like to add my T-P.