A Copernican View of the Turntable System

Dear Chris, the only thing of great concern is how softy you can handle the arm lift. The JR responds quite sharp to an aggressive shock and your fingers must feel only an affectionate touch as like they slip over when queing or lift down the tonearm. If you try them & regret your purchase, I'll be gratefull to exchange them with my Aktyna ARIS every time. A fellow with a Clearaudio arm has the guts to do it first and the other two just have followed. The total weight of the cart/arm is only a small percentage of the 7kgr tower and cannot affect the balance. The height is irrelevant also as one of them uses a tower of over 20cm height for his Gabriel. If you can manage to soften your ET's lift by oiling & handle it with control then I can't see any problem. I guess there are not many TT chassis permitting an independent arm pod & above that most of the people afraid to use the JR's even under their integrated TT's plinth. So, it is normal for most to avoid such an extreme & dangerous option especially when they are used to the convenience of the pivoted tonearms. I don't think there is any guide about the appropriate mass loading of JRs and I have seen them under everything from light weight Tuners to even massive speakers. I realize the difficulty for everyone to accustomed to the swing threat upon every touching of his tonearm, which may cost his precious cartridge. Although one of these fellows trusted his Insider to JRs, I'm sorry but I honestly can't assure you about your stylus safety by first hand. I don't even have an isolated arm pod ... (yet).

Dear Geoch - and others - everything we do in this hobby is at our own risk. We have all lost precious needles.

Only when this happens do people do one of three things. Get out of vinyl altogether, buy cheaper cartridges or be VERY careful.

I will source some Jrs. and try them. This will give me some time to get used to the sound of the new arm pod. I finally added a system page and posted a couple of pictures for those reading this thread.

For those of you thinking we are doing something complicated here - I walked through my house at 1 pm est today with the piece of raw brass and no holes for bolts or threads in it. It is about 5pm now and I have listened to 2 lps already. I let the system warm up while I put it together.

But this is my 3rd version really so give yourself one day to setup.

I can say with the ET tuned to about 75% right now it is sounding very very good.

Cheers Chris

Geoch and Nandric, Despite whatever you both may think, my remark about Geoch's phraseology was totally sincere. I really did think it was beautiful prose, but I needed that clarification provided later by Geoch.

I cannot help but note that this discussion is evolving in a direction with which I can agree. Notice that you guys are talking about ever heavier and more stable arm pods that do not move with respect to the tt. This is beginning to be OK with me and to be consonant with my galleon analogy, which Nandric continues to throw back at me. If you take the two boats out of the water (the net effect of putting both the tonearm and the turntable on very sturdy supports and subject to the same forces), then there is no problem. There is even some coupling going on, whether you like it or not.

Dear Lew, Glad to have you on board because you was at first very skeptical about this arm pod undertaking. But
you also provided the info about the obtainable meterials,
brass cylinders included. The further development is obvious:a. the direction of Halcro's 'exclusive' arm pod with 'universal' applications qua tonearm type as well as
lenght b. the direction of the cheap solutions and c.
something in between. My preference is for the brass cylinder with 3 holes + thread on each side but there are
obvious limitations: 9'' tonearms are problematic and tonearms with a collar also. However the price is +/-$200. For the adaptation of the brass cylinder for a more universal use one will need the help of one craftsman with
unknown costs.
Regards,

Nandric,

If you go down the route of Halcro (which I am more or less planning to do) with the arm tower design, you can offset your mounting hole to be nearer to any desired edge. This removes all concerns about tonearm length. This will also apply for arms with collars. Remember that I have experimented very successfully with a Morch DP6 and an Audio Craft AC3300 - both of which have collars and are 9" or less in length.

Apart from the unspecified and potential costs in needing professional help in drilling the holes, there really appears to be no limits to the arm tower approach and its applications.