TW-Acustic Arm

Dertonarm,

I did not see any marketing inference for the new TW tonearm. I for one do post on German audio web sites and engage others with audio discussions as you do here in the American forums. I can where Gerrym5 was going with his post and do not see any reason fro him to feel bad about it, as the new TW tonearm is readily available in Germany and not the USA right now.

I was able to see a TW turntable in a Hi-Fi show in Dusseldorf a few years ago. It looked and sounded real nice.

Are you registered with any of the German audio forums such as Analog Audio Association, Roehren-und-Hoeren or Hifi-forum.de?

Ciao,
Audioquestlife

Audioquestlife, well, I can see marketing inference for the new TW tonearm - and marketing is my profession....
Audio web forums are today the prime marketing platforms of most smaller high end manufacturers - and that is o.k. with me.
I would however prefer a minimum of objective and clear minded sceptic distance to a new product without any laurels yet.
And yes, I am registered with 2 of those "German audio forums". However - the comments and posts there are so low level, that I couldn't justify to my personal high esteem to participate there.
A total waste of time.
I have personally set-up alone or in team 3 TW Raven ACs.
The virtues and flaws of that particular TW turntable are well known to me.
At least as well as to his designer.
TW has bought the design of the 10.5 OEM from a german engineer to whom it was his first attempt as such and which was originally intended to serve as a kind of "inexpensive tonearm for all" on the major German forum AAA.
Kind of "Foren-Tonarm".
But you know this very well too.

Well, personally I am impressed from GerryM5 that he tries to get in contact with some Germany Audiophiles. I guess he knows that most are not able to answer in english language even when all Germans have it in school to survive outside the own border :-)
The German forums have mainly 2 attributes:
-to show who is without work/lives at Hotel Mama
or
- to get something cheap from a Dealer or Manufacturer, and it is pretty boring anyway.
Most forums are marketing platforms, I have no problem with that, but what amazes me for years is the fact, from the real competent Designers I never find any "comments or buddies who do him a favor" but from those who are glad that some think positive about their real world average products, they are endless.
Let's try to save the good Standard here :-)

Der Tonarm,
Thank you for clarifying yourself. I know that because you are in marketing that many issues regarding how people perceive a product to those who are early adopters add relevance to purchasing decisions.

I am a business major myself and understand fully the concept of marketing and product placement. With audio products in the marketing mix, the 4 P's, product, price, place and promotion they do not seem to garner the same role as regular commercial products, because in audio, everyone is waiting for someone to comment on the product, the early adopters of such a product help make the sales or help to prevent sales. In mainstream marketing of a commercial product, the interest is garnered at a much larger scale and the community is a lot larger. For us audio minions, the community is so small that word of mouth and posts in these forums are really golden words for some and help many others to fully understand what is going on with the particular product that is being referenced. Many people are blowing off the magazine reviews to get impressions from audio products in these very forums. If I was marketing a product for the audio community, (I would ask my marketing manager who works for me in my business)I would use tools to search out the most popular products from the low end to the high end and focus my tactics on the products that are most asked about or wanted by fellow audio interested people. Again, a small niche. Now I am way off topic.
Hey where are you in Germany? I am in the Rheinland Pfalz region, Kaiserslautern area.
I know what forum you are talking about, the same one with the Forumslaufwerk. I never tried to keep up with that topic.

Syntax,
Great idea. I agree. That is why I made my comments regarding the early adopters and people who will get a chance to use the product and submit their impressions. That is one reason that this very forum exists. I can’t wait to hear some impressions as I am looking at adding another tone arm to my turntable, a non-TW one. Perhaps this new one will fit my needs.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Hi DerTonarm,
you are not informed quite well.
The 10.5 was egineered by Michael Wiedemann / Thomas Woschnik.
I know Michael for several years now. This design is not his first one. He has done many designs over the years.
But now, with the knowlegde of TW, he was able to design the ultimate tonearm, as he understand it.
It has nearly nothing in common with the arm, he introduced in the german AAA forum.
This arm was engineered and is build in Germany/Ruhrarea.
It has nothing in common with products, which components where bought in for cheap and sold in a shiny package for a lot of money (e.g.stepups from a Bavarian seller).
Cheers
Wini