TriPlanar tonearm outward skating issue

jsman, I well recall the very first time I heard a Triplanar, which must have been back in the early 90s.  That was the first time I appreciated that a tonearm could have a dramatic effect on the "sound" of a system, particularly the effect of correct azimuth adjustment.

Pretty cool, Raul.  I, and I am sure many others, will look forward to photos and further details about the design.  I am fully in sympathy with you as regards the length of time needed for projects like this, when one is not really "in the business".

One way in which some designers avoid the issue with the TP, that is the source of so much disagreement here between Raul and the world, is to route the wires so that they exit the arm wand just at or just before or just after the pivot. VPI and Basis tonearms adopt that style.  In so doing, the wires never have to traverse a right angle bend within the tonearm structure, which is the case with the TP.  However, the VPI/Basis (and Reed, I think) designs incur a penalty for choosing to externalize the wires at the arm wand; the wires asymmetrically affect the net friction in the horizontal plane, however tiny the added force may be.  In fact, VPI for years let that drag force serve as an anti-skate force. Herb Papier was no dummy; I am sure he was well aware of the problems related to routing of the wires, and he made the choice he made for a reason, probably to avoid the potential for the externalized loop of tonearm wires to affect the freedom of the horizontal bearing. This is just to point out that all design choices have their unique pluses and minuses.  Semantically, there is a big difference between "faulty design" and "design flaw".  The way I see it, the TP designer made a choice that can cause a problem if the end user is not careful or aware.

Dear Raul, I don’t feel personally insulted by your response, any more than you should feel personally insulted by what I wrote. However, don’t you think you are being more than a little bit disingenuous, when you chastise Ralph for being a manufacturer commenting on a commercial product? Do you or did you not market your own Phonolinepreamp for profit, sometimes in this same forum and over a period of several years? Did you not also privately cajole several of us, including me, to purchase your preamp? Have you not announced here more than once that you and your business partner were going to bring a superior tonearm to market? (I don’t know whether the Phonolinepreamp is still in production or whether you will ever market your tonearm, but the principle is the same, either way.) So, you are a manufacturer, not a "simple audiophile/audio customer". Ergo, your motivation in attacking the Triplanar must be suspect. Anyway, my real point is that we have heard enough about this very minor idiosyncrasy of the TP, a problem that is easily avoided if one takes the slightest care not to yank the wires as they exit the base. You are free not to buy one. And let's move on.

Raul, Do you have an equivalent phrase in Spanish for "You are making a mountain out of a mole hill"?  If not, try "Tempest in a teapot".  The discussion should have ended when the OP got his information.  There is hardly any audio product you can name that is completely foolproof.  In that adjective, the operative element is "fool".  We all fool around with our stuff, and once in a while improper handling can adversely play into one or another idiosyncracy of any design.

If a child spills milk on your phonolinepreamp, and it blows up, do we blame the phonolinepreamp for not being waterproof?

Tonearms in particular are oddball devices, employing many different approaches to solving the same set of problems, and, while I would not bother to take a survey, I would wager that many, if not most, have an Achilles heel.  Herb Papier, who designed the Triplanar, set for himself perhaps the most ambitious design goals of any tonearm designer of his era (no other tonearm allowed for adjustments in all planes, when the TP was introduced in the early 80s), and he met them all by taking some unorthodox approaches, from which we all benefit.  Designers that came after Herb also benefit from having the TP to work from.  (I am not arguing that the TP is THE BEST tonearm ever in the world; I am only saying that the TP was ground-breaking when it was introduced.)

Which is what I wrote also, in my post that followed on to Ralph's first post. I've had it happen to me, and the fix was very simple once I was able to discern that the wires were hanging up the pivot.  I'm in good company.

What Ralph said.  As for any pivoted tonearm, the four wires have to pass from the horizontal arm wand into the vertical shaft that supports the pivot and the bearing mechanism.  At that right angle turn, the wires can impede the motion of the bearing.  I think I once had this problem with my Triplanar, and it was an easy fix to just create a little slack where the wires exit the arm on their way to the phono stage.  Pulling the wires too tightly can cause it.  But if it's that simple, one wonders why Tri said he could not fix it; Tri is a smart guy.