Thales Simplicity tonearm review in Stereophile.

Thanks, Hiho. I take your points. Have not listened to the many tracks yet.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but hasn't the Schroeder LT crushed the Thales tonearms, in terms of "simplicity", cost, and actual performance? The Schroeder does allow the cartridge to maintain tangency across the LP surface, just for starters. No skating force to worry about. And the bearings are low in friction. And it's easier to mount. And...

Henry, Don't you think that Fremer's results with digital recordings made with the Thales vs "normal" pivoted tonearms could as well indicate a failing of the Thales, in terms of its engineering? For example, someone wrote that it has an offset headshell and thus generates skating force. That right there is what you would hope to be rid of, if you are going to the bother and expense of establishing tangency across the LP. (I did not know that about the Thales and was disappointed to read it here.) I think much of the distortion that some claim to hear with pivoted tonearms vs LT ones is due to the constant variations in skating force across the LP, rather than to tracking angle distortion. Then too there is the issue of bearing friction.

It would be more telling if Fremer or one of us would do a double-blind digitized comparison of the Trans-fi or the Schroeder LT, vs a conventional pivoted arm.

Catastrofe. No. I have no beef with the Simplicity. Aren't we just a bunch of guys sitting around having a prolonged audio discussion? That's the way I think of this forum. I think it's a place where one can say what one thinks, so long as no one is personally insulted and politics are avoided. If I were a reviewer for a widely read audio magazine, I would temper my remarks accordingly, but I don't think anyone really gives a hoot about this discussion we are having, except us. Therefore, I asked out loud whether the Schroeder LT is not obviously a better design than the Thales. Why does that constitute "bashing"? For sure, the Thales products are beautifully made and the design is very clever. However, so far as I can tell from afar, the Schroeder approach is just a better way to do it. Now, Hiho has made some cogent remarks that would make me re-think my original position. Please see above where I wrote that I accept Hiho's counter-points. OK?

I finally read Fremer's review. Why does that guy always harp on the notion that the vertical and horizontal effective masses of a tonearm should be equal? Why should they be equal? There is some advantage in having a higher effective mass in the horizontal plane, in terms of the reproduction of low bass frequencies, most of which information is encoded in the horizontal plane. I believe it's correct to say that Frank Schroeder pointed this out on another thread here. If Fremer has reason to adhere to this belief, I wish he would explain the rationale.