Hi Doug,
Thanks for your kind words. I'd like to point out though that the bearing is just one(albeit an important one) element of the arm. Since vou can't depend on dissipating energy via the arm's base you need to deal with it further up the line. Let's say I was to use ceramic, titanium, steel or similar material for the armwand(tried all that and then some...) you'd be getting a VERY pronounced sonic "character". The counterweight, how it is coupled to the armstub, the mounting plate and it's variable coupling to the armwand allow you to accomodate different cartridge's vibration output without sacrificing dynamic shading or PRAT.
Ahh, my host just got me a nice drink(thanks Steve!) so excuse me for a while.
Cheers,
Frank |
Just a quick one...
The thread/string material is the same on the Ref.and No.2 arms. The No.1 arm has been discontinued(well, still available on special request...)
best regards,
Frank |
Hi one more time,
One thing I forgot. The Reference arm is often equipped with a high purity, very thin solidcore wiring that has a higher series resistance that most wires. This will result in a slightly lower output which needs to be compensated for when doing a comparison. Otherwise the competitior might sound more "exciting" when used with the same cart.
Greetings from Berlin,
Frank |
Hi Paul,
It depends upon the arm you intend to mount(among other things the material it is made of). Some will sound better on the aluminum board, others you´ll prefer when mounted on the brass board(all dimensions being equal..)
I´ve yet to hear a stainless(plain,undamped) armboard, but high internal damping isn´t exactly it´s main property. Bearing bronze or "Grauguss" (a type of cast iron, unfortunately ferromagnetic) would be far preferable.
Anything against CLD armboards? Hardwood/Aluminum and many other options to choose from. Sorry, this might not be the answer you´ve been looking for.
Cheers,
Frank |
Hi everyone,
Sorry, I was/am busy setting up/demoing turntables at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. I'm going to be on my way again shortly, so you'll have to wait sometime longer for a CLD related response. Raul, please send me a message with the serial# of the arm once you've received it. I can then tell you it's effective mass,length and give you an idea for the range of carts it will work best with.
Have fun,
Frank |
Hello Raul,
Sorry to say this, but unless you give me the serial# I won't be able to tell you the eff. mass of that particular arm. Since this arm was likely sold through an importer/dealer I wouldn't know who the customer is(nor do I care). I assure you that, even if I knew, I would not disclose the identity(and why should I?).
As for the eff. mass of my arms: The Reference can be ordered with armwands ranging from 5 - 50(!)gr. eff. mass. So there are many different ones around that certainly won't suit just any cart you care to mount.
And who is "we", as in "we do these tests without influence"?
Make shure that gentleman sends the instructions along, too...
Cartridge recommendations simply refer to proper matching of the physical parameters, not the sonic properties.
Waiting for your reply,
best regards,
Frank |
Hello Nghiep,
First of all, Mr. Well Tempered's name is Bill Firebaugh.
Secondly, you're off on a number of your assessments. The eff. mass of ,say, gimballed vs. suspended arms doesn't differ as implied in your post. It is the application of damping that alters Q and Fres. In the case of the Well Tempered Arm A LOT of damping is applied to allow for proper operation(=minimal displacement of the arm assembly as a result of groove drag). Since the Well Tempered Arm employs such a large amount of damping it has to be taken into account when calculating the expected Fres.
The string has NOTHING to do with a more "musical" sound of suspended arms. It allows for the construction of a chatter free bearing and next bto zero friction(+ zero stiction). It doesn't resonate in either of the arms.
It didn't take me 20 years to get a patent on my arm. In fact it only took the usual 2 years. And while I've been making string suspended tomearms since 1978, only when I turned it into a full time occupation I decided to protect my intellectual property(a very costly affair, I might add)
Besides that, anyone with an understanding of physics will realize that there are distict differences in the design of the two arms: application of antiskating force, distribution of mass, bearing rigidity vs. damping, versatilty. The last point brings me to another misconception. It is the eff. mass, not the bearing principle that determines the suitability of any arm for use with high compliance carts. I have customers running VERY high compl. carts(35cu+) and neither they nor I experienced any phenomenae that would indicate a mismatch.
"Electrons flow like water"? That's a nice school book analogy but doesn't reflect reality.
All the best,
Frank |
Dear Raul,
First of all, you're bragging about your knowledge of music. And your examples might impress a school kid, but please, spare me the obvious.
Secondly, you might try to understand why your posts create such emotions: laughter, boredom...
Thirdly, the number of homes alowing for quality reproduction of the sub octave is minute. Musically satisfying components for real world homes and wallets don't have to be able to reproduce the stated bandwith. But maybe you were just bragging again?
Fourth: Understand all the weak points in your arguments...
Fifth: Have the maturity to admit at being wrong at times.
Sixth: I'm surrounded by Reference frames, heck, I build them(pardon the cheap joke ;-).
Seventh: I prefer to go to concerts with an attendance greater than 1
Eighth: Doesn't that conflict with your previous statement , number five?
Ninth: You're stating the obvious again.
Your statements on bearing friction made clear that you don't know what you're talking about, no need to go any further. If you haven't heard one of my arms in your own system, then any statement like "it isn't in another league" has no foundation whatsoever. Go and listen for yourself, then come back and report.
Thomas Heisig has never heard the Reference arm under meaningful conditions, his experience is a very limited one too, but it shure must feel nice not to be alone ...
That's all folks , no need to waste anymore bandwidth.
Cheerio,
Frank |
Hello Ebm,
The information content of your post is diametrically opposed to your use of caps. Maybe for the benefit of everyone here, you´d care to elaborate under which conditions(table, cart, etc.) you performed your comparison. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Graham Phantom is an improvement over the 2.2, otherwise, why would Bob Graham go through the hassle of introducing a new top of the line model. But the Phantom is so new that I am rather cautious regarding bold statements such as yours when you couldn´t have had a lot of time to gain experience with it(as in: using it with different carts and decks).
Curious,
Frank Schröder |
Dear sirspeedy,
Yes, the arm wiring has a tremendeous influence on the overall resulting fidelity. But it isn't enough to look at different conducting materials, the insulation, the solder joints, the cartridge clips and, very importantly, the armwand material(eddy current losses) play an important role. There is no perfect wiring for all carts. Your carts features silver coils? Use appropriate silver wiring and cartridge clips. Copper coils? My choice would be solid core copper, teflon or thin laquer insulation, and so on...
A friend of mine experimented extensively with cyrogenic treatment. You could shurely hear a difference, but proper break in yielded almost no discernable difference.
If you kink solid core wires it is as if you're starting all over again. But that is subject to another debate...
Sonic signature of arms in particular, hmmm - I won't comment on other arms, suffice it to say that it was my goal to build arms that introduce virtually no disturbance of the cart's tracking the grooves. Of equal importance is the way the arm copes with the energy fed into it, here is where my arms differ quite a bit from others. Before I turn this answer into an ad, I'd recommend you listen to one for yourself. No theoretical advantage is worth a dime if your impressions tell you otherwise. Hope to hear about your impressions one day!
Best,
Frank |
Hello Paul,
Writing from beautiful Colorado right now. I'm afraid I can't give you a definitive answer regarding the fibre versus lead question. If your machinist refers to "Hartgewebe", phenolic resin impregnated cotton(or other fibres)heat/pressure traeted, then go for it. The material has a chaotic structure and exhibits practically no ringing whatsoever. Astronomic telescopes of smaller proportions are often made utilising Pertinax(phenolic resin impregnated paper)tubes because of the high internal damping(less vibrations=sharper image), it also has a very low temparature expansion coefficient(no change in focus due to temperature changes). I went to using Pertinax for the outer layer of the No.2 armwands because of these traits. Whether a lead sheet yields superior results is also dependent upon the thickness of the sheet used, I'd go for a thin sheet, but ultimately there is no getting around trying it(or several versions...).
As for the SME30, sorry no experience, but several customers of mine use Ref.arms on SME20s and have been very happy with that combination(carts range from Ortofon Rohmann to Koetsu Red Sig. Platinum).
Gotta send this before the computer crashes again(just rewrote this...)
Cheerio,
Frank
P.S.: An ideal set up? Even if I knew(and proclaim) what that would be comprised of, I'd be stepping on so many peoples toes that are convinced they have the answer, I'd stay quiet... |
Hello 4yamx,
Hmmm, my impressions on CLD materials.... First of all we'd have to look at the application: plinth, platter, armboard, tonearm wand, etc..
I guess you were refering to the use of CLD in armboards.
Conventional("rigidly" coupled) tonarms depend upon the dissipation of energy (fed into their structure by the cartridge tracking the grooves) in the arm's structure itself and, to a greater or lesser degree, in the armboard(or plinth) they're mounted on. The use of a CLD armboard should help dissipating those vibrations more evenly, and when the right materials are chosen, more quickly, too. Every structure(tonearm) will exhibit different resonance characteristics, therefore armboard A might be better suited to accomodate arm A' while armboard B will be better suited to arm B' . To further complicate things, the resonance makeup of arm A', or B', and C'... will differ depending upon the cart used. By tightening cartridge screws like a maniac you only emphasize this phenomenon.
I use a CLD armwand for the No.2 arm(3layers), which helps to control armwand resonances, CLD effectivly cuts the peaks in the resonance spectrum(same for arm boards, etc..).
If you intend to build a CLD armboard, try to match the mechanical impedance of the arm's contact surface/material and use a "chaoticly" structured material as the second layer.
Certain types of woods are, for all intents and purposes just that: Randomly distributed hard/strong fibres imbedded in a softer compound with a large "lossy" interface area within the material itself.
MDF out to be a perfect material for this application, but it isn't: the individual fibres are too short.
Hope that helped a bit...
Cheers,
Frank |
Hello Nghiep,
I take the first part of your post as a compliment, but have to say that other types of tonearm bearing designs had not vanished. Just consider the Well Tempered Arm which many find similar to my arms. When it entered the market in 1986(iIrc), it enjoyed a brief period of recognition/success and then was reduced to a niche product in this (already) niche market before coming back lately. Some arms appeal to some, others to others(quite a Jogi Bear comment... ;-). Personally I love the coexistence as much as the competition as long as it serves the quest for better music reproduction.
Regarding the second part: Mmmh, as an owner you should have the manual that goes with the arm(explaining all the features -damping, antiskating..). But even if you´re part of the DIY community and discovered all of the above, I´d say: welcome to the club!
Cheerio,
Frank |
Hello!
Sorry to hear that you didn´t get a response from England. Was it GTAudio(www.gtaudio.com) you´ve contacted? Now, China is a different story. I don´t have a distributor in China, so who was it you tried to get in touch with?
Besides all of that, it would have been quite easy to get in touch with the spanish distributor, Cosmos Hifi.
The role of distributors/dealers is quite clear. Not everyone has the experience/knowledge to set up a turntable. Those with a love for music but ten left thumbs ought to leave it to their dealer to get the best out of their system(fewer and fewer dealers around who are willing and capable of that...). They should also assist the customer in choosing the best component/system, something I´m often asked for. This is not only time consuming but it also makes it very difficult to maintain a neutral position.
But there´s more to cover with those 30-40%. While I don´t advertise, distributors and dealers do , - if they feel the need for it. Why, you might ask, when everyone seems to be on the net nowadays, asking for unbiased advice....and lots of people willing to give that advice, unbiased or not(knowledgeable or not). There are still countless audiophiles around who much rather talk to someone on the phone or in person instead of conversing with an internet moniker.
Distributors and sometimes dealers demo at shows to attract and educate the customer. This is VERY costly, yet more often then not, distributors tell me "it wasn´t worth it, again". It can be rather frustrating to spend thousands of dollars/pounds/euros, schlepping around amps and speakers designed for forklifts, not humans, only to witness too many people sticking their head into the room and turning around in less than 10 seconds(which is how long it took them to collect the color broschures). Yet, when being asked about the sound in that room, one of the standard answers would be: "My system at home is sooo much better and it cost me this much less..."
Fortunately there are many who don´t fall into that category and it is some of them who might not need distributors/dealers. A majority(rendering dist./dealers useless) it is not.
Feel free to get in touch with me directly, if only for advice. But realise that there are limits as to how much time I can divert to this part of my occupation before others aspects(like the sheer making of the product) start to suffer.
All the best,
Frank |
