Trans-fi Terminator T3PRO opinions please...

A little late to the party here but nevertheless ready to chime in. First of all, hello tms. Hope you got the speakers pumping.
Now, I'm a good reference because I had never set up a turntable and picked this on tms' suggestion. As above, yes Vic is an absolutely reliable resource. If I had a problem he promptly engaged me with possible solutions.
The nice thing about the setup is that everything makes sense, and that becomes readily apparent. You will spend some time getting it level. Plenty of oil in the bearing casing. I use the lowest pressure possible until the arm mistracks, then add pressure until it moves along. I also placed the pump in another room, doesn't matter how long the run of tubing is.
I did quite a bit of research on the pros and cons of linear vs pivot. Most of the drawbacks concerning linear, high pressure, unstable with air vs fixed pivot and other possible complications Vic has answered with his design. I'm a linear guy though, even had a Rabco many moons ago. It just makes too much sense. The way Vic's air bearing is designed is in my mind a bit of simple genius.
All the above owners were helpful. Now it's done.

Update on a regulated air supply.

More to report than I expected. I thought the results would be a matter of nuance, not a matter of dramatic improvement, but I was wrong.

I had been using a Rena 400 aquarium pump with two surge tanks, of 4 and 20 litres, with 1/8 tubing. The sound was very good indeed.

Then I moved to a HiBlow 40, a much more powerful pump. The first surge tank is a LEAKY 4 litre plastic bottle filled with cotton swabs, plumbed with 1/2" tubing and connected to a Fairchild precision regulator. From there 1/4" tubing connects to the two previous surge tanks.

The Terminator (lord, how I hate that name) runs sweetly at 9 mm of mercury (or 9/760 = 0.012 atmospheres), and has an interesting set of tracking characteristics. My Koetsu tracks the highly challenging bass tremolo on Bells of St Anne de Beaupre (Real Time Records "Power and Glory"), but not many of the soprano arias. At 20 mm of Hg, it tracks the sopranos flawlessly but not Bells.

The quality of sound improves dramatically from Rena to HiBlow. It is smoother, less artificial, more focussed, and more elegant. Improvement in focus continues, albeit to a lesser extent, with more pressure up to 20 mm.

All reports preliminary, you understand. I just set this up, and so may have to revise everything I just said. If you want to try it, let me know what you think - it's small change for a real improvement, IMO. What's more, the physics predict it, so I suspect that the improvement is real.

Update on a regulated air supply.

More to report than I expected. I thought the results would be a matter of nuance, not a matter of dramatic improvement, but I was wrong.

I had been using a Rena 400 aquarium pump with two surge tanks, of 4 and 20 litres, with 1/8 tubing. The sound was very good indeed.

Then I moved to a HiBlow 40, a much more powerful pump. The first surge tank is a LEAKY 4 litre plastic bottle filled with cotton swabs, plumbed with 1/2" tubing and connected to a Fairchild precision regulator. From there 1/4" tubing connects to the two previous surge tanks.

The Terminator (lord, how I hate that name) runs sweetly at 9 mm of mercury (or 9/760 = 0.012 atmospheres), and has an interesting set of tracking characteristics. My Koetsu tracks the highly challenging bass tremolo on Bells of St Anne de Beaupre (Real Time Records "Power and Glory"), but not many of the soprano arias. At 20 mm of Hg, it tracks the sopranos flawlessly but not Bells.

The quality of sound improves dramatically from Rena to HiBlow. It is smoother, less artificial, more focussed, and more elegant. Improvement in focus continues, albeit to a lesser extent, with more pressure up to 20 mm.

All reports preliminary, you understand. I just set this up, and so may have to revise everything I just said. If you want to try it, let me know what you think - it's small change for a real improvement, IMO. What's more, the physics predict it, so I suspect that the improvement is real.

Terry, Is your HiBlow a Japanese pump like this on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hiblow-HP-40-Air-Pump-
/251645407644?
pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PondsWaterFeatures_UK&hash=item3a973
c319c
You have 2 surge tanks in a row, are they equal to each
other ?

Hello Harold.

Unfortunately, that listing will not load for me, but they do sound similar. Mine is Japanese, with all the best that this connotes.

I have three surge tanks. The air path is: pump, 4 litre filled with cotton, regulator, 4 litre empty, 20 litre empty, tonearm.