Airtangent vs Kuzma airline

Brian,

At my home it will be on a custom built tig welded aluminum stand filled with silica and whatever top plate (granite, maple, composite) that works best.

At the other location it will sit directly beside the other Walker TT, on top of the Rix Rax top of the line with spiked wooden top platform.

I've owned the Versa Dynamics with it's air bearing linear track arm, two ET air bearing linear track arms (upgraded pumps), a Triplanar, 2 Graham's, an Air Tangent 10B, two Breuer Dynamic and multiple popular pivot arms such as the Decca, Dynavector, Thorens, SME, Ortofon, and a dozen others.

The Air Tangent was a total disappointment for me, in spite of trying it with a Dynavector cartridge, two Benz Ruby cartridges and a Koetsu Rosewood Platinum. In my opinion, the Graham beats it and so does the Basis Vector, particularly in the bass and dynamics region.

The Kuzma is likely in the same class with the Walker arm and certainly above the Air Tangent. If you can wait a few weeks, we have a Kuzma arm and turntable (very top of the line) coming to a guy in my music group. We plan on comparing it to a Basis Debut Gold with Graham 2.2 and against the Walker Proscenium.

Rum,

In the very near future I will be able to tell you precisely how the big Kuzma turntable with air bearing arm sounds. We will be comparing it to a Walker Proscenium with Walker air bearing arm.

The cartridge of choice for the test, a Koetsu Jade Platinum, will be moved from one arm to the other and carefully adjusted and set up by me.

The music I hear from Kuzma rigs at audio shows is great, but it's impossible for me to separate exactly what the arm is contributing. It would be difficult if I could luck into a demo with two competitive arms, identical turntables, matched cartridges, identical tonearm wire, proper loading values for the cartridge, exact gain matching during the audition and equal quality set up on both tables and arms :^).

All that being said, my instincts say the Kuzma is a world class rig. I have more confidence in it than the Continuum Audio Labs that's all the buzz.

Kha, the Graham had better bass than the Air Tangent in my system. The Air Tangent was mounted on a Basis Debut Gold MK IV. Later that same table was fitted with two Graham arms and had previously had other pivot arms (but not the ET on that table).

The Kuzma is likely equal to the Graham in bass, assuming it's anywhere near the Walker. The Walker arm has the best bass I have ever gotten but it's difficult to know how much is package integration, how much is TT design and how much is due to the arm :^).

When I hear the Kuzma I will absolutely know how it fares against the Walker and by deduction and previous experience might venture a "guesstimate" as to where it is against the other arms I mentioned.

Brian, (Essentialaudio) the foundation will be the STABI XL TURNTABLE for the Kuzma Airline arm. Plan right now is test with Koetsu Jade Platinum Signature that is supposed to arrive Wednesday (this week).

I don't think the table and arm are shipped yet, so we will have time to run the Jade in the Walker and get some break in.

Cello, perhaps my comparison of bass performance between the Phantom and the Air Tangent led you to the conclusion that I had tried the Phantom against the Graham. I have not.

Sirspeedy, no offence taken and I hope you don't think I am attacking your friends system either. My comments are an honest appraisal of my experience with the AirTanget 10B, obtained by a high end manufacturer, directly from the factory in Sweden.

I spent at least two months with it, working every trick I knew. Understand too, I came from owning a Versa Dynamics and several other linear track arms, so the Air Tangent was not unfamiliar to me in concept, design or complexity of set up.

The fact it did not work for me and did for your friend could be for a dozen reasons. Different arm wands were used during different periods of manufacture of the Air Tangent and there were at least three air control boxes (mine had the push-pull knob and dial), and of course the cartridge must be a good match for the arm.

For all these reasons your friend could have had a completely different model with different air control box and pump and had a cartridge that matched that rig perfectly. However for me to ignore (and not discuss) my experiences with this arm is just as wrong as your not defending your friends good experience with it.

People can read both reports and approach the possibility of ownership with a good solid audition and see if their experience is like either of us report or something completely different.

Forums are just a place to share experience, does not remove the need to test.

How much is your upper limit for a phono stage? My suggestion would be Aesthetix Io Sig, but it's expensive.

Whart, it was supposed to ship the 13th, four days ago. The dealer was busy and took longer to get the original boxes and pack it up.

I hope the Kuzma and the new Koetsu Jade Platinum both show up this coming week. Assuming the new Koetsu Jade and my existing Jade are very close in performance, auditioning between it and the Walker should be informative.