Dear Doug, Thanks for your thoughts on the virtues of wood and why the Schroeder "sounds" as it does. But statements like: "Acoustic energies which flow into wood tend to be repeatedly scattered into disorganized packets with randomized frequencies and amplitudes. This makes it easier for the arm and armboard to dissipate them, rather than reflecting organized energy back toward the cartridge." are really hypotheses that you favor, not facts. Appealing ideas but not proven. We audiophiles, myself included, do this all the time.
I loved the Talea in the set-up I heard, but I note also that the piece of metal onto which the cartridge is mounted is affixed to the wood arm wand by one single bolt, which does not suggest to me that energy transfer from the cartridge into the arm wand is super efficient. Also there would be energy reflected back into the cartridge at the wood/metal interface. These structural elements tend to make me wonder to what degree your hypothesis is a real factor in the resulting sonic quality of the tonearm.
I loved the Talea in the set-up I heard, but I note also that the piece of metal onto which the cartridge is mounted is affixed to the wood arm wand by one single bolt, which does not suggest to me that energy transfer from the cartridge into the arm wand is super efficient. Also there would be energy reflected back into the cartridge at the wood/metal interface. These structural elements tend to make me wonder to what degree your hypothesis is a real factor in the resulting sonic quality of the tonearm.
