Pete Riggle Woody tonearm

I'm sorry to all that I lack any journalistic, and reviewer expertise. I'm certainly no Mikey F! lol

And of course too, it is not I, who can further elaborate in detail of this Arm's qualities-attributes, and abilities. I've never owned, or used one. But John has, and has shared quite a bit with me by private coorespondence.

I do get the impression if it can live hand in hand very well compatibly with some of ZYX's best Cartridges such as the 4D, this in itself is a very high compliment to this Arm. Mark

Dear Mark,
I gather you are an aficionado of ZYX. I have heard only one model (the UNIverse) in one tonearm (the Talea), and the combination was superb. So good that I wonder whether there is a special synergy between the UNIverse and either wood tonearms or unipivot tonearms, or both.

Hello Lewm,
I think I got a little bit of a taste of what the UNIverse can do, since I own the Airy 3X SB. (Low Output)

It was our highly regarded inmate Doug Deacon who steered me to the Airy 3 through Sorasound. A brand new Benz Ruby 3 I had prior, never went back on my Table after experiencing the ZYX Cartridge. I was lucky, in that I had found very suitable pleasing results with a more humbly priced Arm, the AQ PT-9.

Little doubt that a better Arm than the AQ would bring even more refinement from these fine Cartridges, but I am very happy at present.

It was I who helped prod John Hoffman into suggesting, and him acquiring the ZYX 4D from Sorasound that currently resides on his Galibier Table with Riggle Woody Arm.

John was looking for a giant killer, and I think he is more than satisfied with what the ZYX 4D does in his system.

My concerns were not so much what the 4D could do, any lack of quality of the Riggle Arm to perform, but rather if the 4D would be a compatible compliance match for the Riggle Tonearm. This Arm-Cartridge combination has apparently worked extremely well John claims.
Mark

I gather that Mr. Riggle will build the arm with effective mass to suit one's chosen cartridge, which is pretty nifty and rather unheard of among snootier tonearm makers. Of course, anyone far gone enough to order a hand-made wooden tonearm is likely to want to use it with a wide variety of cartridges.

I have been living with the String Theory arm for 3 weeks now and
loving every minute. As member Clio09 can attest, I had major static
and surface noise issues which have now been vanquished.
The arm is highly musical, detailed, and produces a huge soundstage.
Probably my favorite component. I run it with a Clearaudio Maestro on
A Merrill/Scillia modded AR, Pass xp-15, Lightspeed Attenuator,
Coincident Franks, Vaughn Cabernets. Hope MikeLavigne gets to hear
it and let us know how it stacks up to the Durand arms. Great job
Pete.