td-01 chinese tonearm?

I would think that there must be something holding the arm in place in the cup other than the ball floating in the oil pool. I would think it was either sitting in the bottom, held by the weight of the arm or the string would go right through, which obviously it does not. the description above makes it sound like the arm is on a pendulum, with the ball just touching the surface of the oil to slow the pendulum action down.

I would hope the ball is actually sitting in the cup and held in place by the weight of the tonearm and the string just provides lateral support.

After reading Q&A's, it sounds like it just hangs and floats. It doesn't sound to stable. To much lateral movement in my opinion. I don't think any is good. It could make odd noises from what I see.
[http://cgi.ebay.com/?ViewItem&item=180623164884]

As I said, this is the same seller who used to have a tonearm that works exactly like the Schroder arm but Frank found out and complained about the infringement to the seller. The designer then put his own twist to the Schroder design by replacing the magnet with a ball in an oil pool a la WTA. Whether the approach is effective or no is still in question.

I don't think it's a problem with the small amount of oil but the tie point of the string is not at the mid-section of the ceramic ball so I believe, as Manitunc observed, there would be too much lateral movement or pendulum action. But if the the ball is touching the bottom of oil pool, there would be no need for the string and simply act like a missionary style unipivot a la Naim ARO or Graham, instead of a spike now it's a ball, which would be similar to a Scheu Tacco. In a classic unipivot, having a string like that would hinder the all kinds of movement, horizontal and vertical. You're better off with no string at all.

This design has much potential but might need further refinement. If any reader has one, feel free to chime in.

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Some odd tonearms to look at from Russia someone posted earlier here on Audiogon.[http://ierihon.com.ua/tonarm]

Someone has too much time on their hands. Some nice woodcarving work on those russian arms, but how could they possibly work with a cartridge swinging from a string?