Got to hand it to the ladies - my KRSP came the same way, but for a major birthday.
I use mine on a Trans-Fi air bearing tonearm, and a DIY air bearing turntable. What I like best about the Trans-Fi Terminator (don't blame me, I didn't name it) is the low cost / high quality, in which clever use of standard material is used instead of exotic machining. Second best, is tweakability. Third, it's a low pressure system using an aquarium pump, so none of the oil-filtering hassles. Fourth, you buy direct from the owner, who promptly goes on a mission to make the tonearm work for you.
I adjust the mass of the wand with brass weights to accommodate different cartridges. For the KRSP, I use two 5 gram brass weights and one 2 gram weight on the front of the arm wand, and that seems to work well.
May I also suggest an ultrasonic record cleaner? My dealer could detect no wear whatsoever after 400 hours of use - which means that the increased sound quality is just about free.
Good luck!
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Should mention that my KRSP has the diamond cantilever - can't imagine a much lower compliance than that.
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Hello Karl.
I bought a Trans-Fi for my modified Nottingham Analogue Mentor, with the Dais bearing, new motor, and matched power supply. Great improvement.
Only with time did I realize just how good the Trans-Fi really is. Every adjustment possible, all of them intuitive, but only VTA easy and on the fly. VTF fiddly (remove wand, slide a counterweight and tighten) but positive. Azimuth fiddly (remove wand and rotate set screws) but very high precision (repeatable 7 minutes of arc, IIRC), and highly stable. The wand assembly has the highest integrity and stiffness.
The wand has holes machined into it to reduce mass. But these are ideal for adding brass weights to increase mass as needed. The wand is flat, so that anti-resonance material can be laid upon it. Air pressure can be manipulated to change damping. Versatile - the thing should be called the Versatile. Just by tweaking you can significantly change the characteristics of the sound to suit your mood - high precision, or soft and romantic.
So I bought another one for my DIY turntable with aerospace air bearing and 45kg composite platter. I doubt if a significantly better tonearm is available at any price, if you are willing to put in some time setting it up. But I've got more time than money these days. So it's Trans-Fi for me. Times two.
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Mulveling, may I ask you about the characteristics of your stone bodies? I am toying with the idea, you see.
Thanks!
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Thanks for the correction, Larry. You are quite right. |
Mulveling, thank you. I really appreciate your detailed response. |
Raul, even if that remark were incontrovertibly true, which it certainly is not, it was churlish. |
Thank you, Raul, for reminding me why I should not read your posts. |
@karl_desch @mulveling @larryi
Gentlemen, I want to share a new discovery (to me) with you.
After posting, I was considering the advantages of the linear tracker, when I wondered just how accurately my cartridge was placed on the arm wand, so I measured it: within 0.004 inches, or about 15 minutes of arc.
Being anal, I naturally tried to make it better, even though I expected the manufacturing tolerances on the KRSP to swamp such a small amount. But I persevered, and got it to about 0.0005 inches, about 2 minutes of arc.
Surprise. More clarity, tighter and stronger bass, more sweetness, less distortion. Not subtle. Not just me - the lady was suitably impressed and said much the same.
I leave it to you to decide whether or not an anally set up linear tracker is likely to have any competition from anything, regardless of price. |
After further consideration, I wonder if I might not have stumbled on the correct torque (for the mounting screws) instead. I will be getting a precision torque driver to sort it out, and will report back. |
VTA is very easy. The rest is fiddly - then again, it costs $1k instead of $10k. |
Quite correct, Larry. I later realized that the effect might be caused by torque. When I get my precision torque driver I'll sort it out.
My posting was ambiguous. I was not adjusting overhang, but offset angle - which, of course, should be 0 for a linear tracker. Overhang is not really the issue with a linear tracker; one is after tangentiality, which can be set very precisely, even for a cartridge like the KRSP, with its invisible stylus. |
