Thales Simplicity tonearm review in Stereophile.

Sarcher30: "After more investigating on the hifistatement.net website, it looks like they are using a Brinkmann LaGrange TT for their tests."

Thanks for the research! It makes sense since the LaGrange allows two tonearms and the armpods are swappable which makes evaluating tonearms and cartridges a lot easier. Being a non-suspended table helps too. Just imagine evaluating all of that on a Linn....

I remember years ago, the British magazine Hi-Fi World did a turntable shootout of 6 or 7 brands including some vintage units using the Hadcock tonearm throughout since the armwand is detachable from the base (much like the VPI JMW models) so all the tables are mounted with identical Hadcock bases and then each set up mates with the same arm and cartridge through out, thus eliminating variables. Of course each signal path goes through the same phono stage, line stage, etc.. It's the closest thing to an objective evaluation. Still not perfect, of couse, as some turntables might not have the same "synergy" with the Hadcock. But I give them props for at least trying.

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I haven't read the review yet but while that is ONE negative review, there are MANY glowing reviews internationally. If I'm a potential buyer, I wouldn't let just one review to discourage me from checking out this unique design on my own. From the description of the review, the resulted sound can be possibly user error or Thales needs to do a better job of its instruction manual. I hope to hear from actual users' experiences here.

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Let's not dismiss the Simplicity so offhandedly. After all, Mr. Fremer gave a glowing review of Thales' top of the line AV model, which features even more complicated pivot bearings. Theoretically the AV (stands for Aluminum Version) offers the possibility of perfect tangency (I know the word tangency should be like pregnancy, either it is or it is not.) due to the geometry of the Thales semi-circle. The Simplicity, whose name is a response to the more complicated AV, using a tetragon solution that reduces the tracking error to a maximum of 0.008° and this value is probably too small to be of any interest. It's still a formidable design with the ease of headshell swapping and with a 230mm mounting distance that's suitable for most turntables. The embedded magnets on the split counterweights are also ingenious. Even if the resulted sound is questionable at least Mr. Micha Huber offers an fully pivoting alternative to airbearing or mechanical linear bearing a la Clearaudio, since the days of Garrard Zero 100.

I readily agree that the Schröder LT is a more effective approach to minimize skating force but I am certain Frank is willing to give credit to Mr. Huber's for his thinking out of the box design. In tangential tracking if the cartridge cantilever to the static pivot point form a straight line, there will be zero skating force. Frank's design, by his claim, minimizes it to such low level to be inconsequential. I guess the knock on the Simplicity and AV is that they behave just like most conventional pivot arm.

Just for fun, here's a German website that offers more than 50 digitized samples of three different tracks of various analog set ups with different tonearms, cartridges, and phono stages. However, the turntable is not listed so perhaps the German speaking members here can enlighten us. Sample #43 uses the Thales Simplicity arm and sample $44 uses SME V with same tune and same set up. Both files are over 150MB and are downloadable.

HiFi Statement Net Magazine Sound Library

English version via Google Translate

Sample #43, Thales Simplicity tonearm

Sample #44, SME V, the rest same as above

Any difference?

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Review of the Thales Simplicity in Stereophile's January 2014 issue.

Page 29

Page 30

Page 31

Page 32

Page 35

The TTT-C turntable got a positive review but less so for the tonearm. After reading, I really wonder if the reviewer received an arm with faulty bearings...

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01-04-14: Catastrofe: "Micha Huber has posted a response to the Stereophile review on his website: tonarm.ch"

For full statement, click here.

Excerpt from January 2014 statement by Micha Huber:

"Unfortunately, it seems as the arm used for the review did not fit into these tolerances. This was definitely the case for the arm used at the RMAF. The reason for this turned out to be a combination of wrong treatment (modifying sealed screws for the adjustment of the head-bearing) by our very new distributor and the following troubles caused therefore."

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01-12-14: Proftournesol: "Apparently the US agent 'adjusted' every arm that he received and the bearings were then malfunctioning."

I wonder if this is the case in a review from a French magazine as the headshell is installed completely wrong; it's reversed! The funny part is that it got a glowing review!* That's just unbelievable! I wonder if their local distributor re-installed the headshell mounting plate and had it backward!

Check out the pictures:

Page 1 - - - - - - Page 2 - - - - - - Page 3 - - - - - - Page 4

If the sonic impression was based on the performance of the arm in the pictures, it would've had ton of tracking errors and distortions.

* (I don't read French but used Google Translate to get the gist of the review.)

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The Simplicity is an articulated tonearm so its geometry has to be exact to work as intended. The stylus has to be exactly below the pivot (on the left armwand bearing) on the headshell in order to be tangential tracking. Any misalignment will throw everything out of wack. It's not supposed to have overhang but the wrong headshell installation push the stylus about an inch forward so it creates overhang and would throw off everything. You cannot treat it like a normal arm because the headshell pivots and the armbase also has two pivot points which makes it a tetragonal geometry.

PS. I alerted this to Thales and the designer replied back saying the mistake was corrected before the sonic review but the photos were taken already so they printed it as he said "it's the French way of life..." A funny dig on c'est la vie!

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Profitournesol, my post was referring to Sarcher30's comment above. He said:

"Having the headshell backward would allow you to get to the cartridge screws, and you would be able to adjust alignment like a normal arm. Instead of using that funky alignment jig it comes with. Unless having the headshell plate backwards would throw it's geometry off. Which it probably would."

He pretty much answered his own question. So bottomline is that when the headshell plate is backward, it is impossible to get the geometry correct.

The stylus has to be exactly below the pivoting bearing on the left wand to be tangent.

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