dave, Reverse engineering of protected intellectual property for commercial purposes is often actionable, though the legal complexities can be daunting. If the action is successful, the court may order injunctive relief (i.e., a "cease and desist" order against the unlicensed user) and/or civil damages. Samsung was recently found to have violated Apple's IP rights by reverse engineering elements of the i-Phone and implementing them for commercial gain in its own Galaxy phones. Appeals are pending, but at trial Samsung was ordered to pay Apple several billion dollars in damages and enjoined from selling certain models and features. Of course if the reverse engineering company has much deeper pockets they can exhaust the poor inventor, as you said. Blah, blah, blah... For the purposes of this discussion, I wasn't thinking primarily about enforcing (or stealing) IP rights. The immediate value of an IP attorney for Frank would be to help negotiate licensing agreements with honest manufacturers. This assumes Frank would actually be interested. That would be a departure of course. He's an audiophile, artist and craftsman first, a (very good) businessman second. *** Isochronism, Speaking of watchmakers, I just bought a house from a man who repairs, rebuilds and sells antique clocks. You'd have loved his basement machine shop... cool stuff. Hicks Antique Clocks |
Dear Iso, It is interesting to learn of your and Schroeder's former occupations. I can add another tonearm inventor to the watchmaker list: Herb Papier, creator of the Triplanar. I was a friend of Herb's in his later years, right up to and beyond the point where he sold the Triplanar business. He built every Triplanar in his basement, on a workbench that resembled what you would see in the shop of a watchmaker. As Herb got older and somewhat disabled, he farmed out some of the mass production (ha-ha) of tonearm parts to various trusted shops, but there were certain things Herb would not entrust to anyone else, including the setting of the bearings. |
I absolutely heard the difference between a conventional pivoting arm and a tangential tracker. At my local high end dealer's annual open house, Mike Fremer showed up with a CD he'd made, re-recording the same LP track multiple times with different turntable/tonearm combinations. One of them had a tangential tracker (probably a Walker). All tracks were level-matched for listening tests. I identified the track made with the tangential arm easily. It doesn't take "bat ears" any more than Sherlock Holmes needed "eagle eyes." You just have to know what to listen (or look) for, especially to be sensitive to certain musical values. The problem with much critical listening is that people are listening for sound (higher highs, lower lows, louder louds and softer softs) when they need to be listening for musical values--tonal accuracy, timing, rhythm and pace, soundstage, transients, ambience, and just flat-out musical enjoyment. The recordings from the pivoting tonearms sounded pinched or constipated compared to the tangential tracker. The tangential tracker was more relaxed and open, and sounded more live and less like reproduced music. But the good tangential trackers are expensive and a big PITA for the support mechanism, especially the air pump. It was frustrating to realize I could easily hear it but not afford it. The Shroeder takes care of the hassle part, but is about as expensive as a perpendicular arm. Compared to the air bearing tonearms, the Shroeder pivot should be relatively easy to reproduce and even mass produce, bringing this higher level of sonic refinement to a larger audience. |
Where are the current owners of the Schroeder linear arm, they must be too busy listening to amazing distortion-free music to comment on this thread. I hope some might speak up, specially if they can compare an air bearing type of linear arm to the Schroeder. I have lived with a Model 2 fw arm for several years, it continues to amaze me, not only because it routinely teaches what music feels like but also because my digital front-end can't come close to its charms. |
