The pivoted arm experiment is over


I started the thread titled "are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms" and as a result of the many thought provoking threads that were posted, I decided to revisit pivoted arms again.

First of all, I want to say thanks to Dertonarm for starting me on this journey and all of the help he gave me in setting up my arm. As some of you recall, I purchased a Fidelity Research FR64s, a NOS Orsonic headshell, and an AQ LeoPard tonearm cable. This was all mounted on a new armboard on my VPI TNT table. After I had removed the ET-2 from the TNT and while I was waiting for the new arm and all of the other parts to arrive, I went ahead and did some maintenance to the TNT. I removed the bearing assembly and took it to a machinist for inspection. He didn't like the fact that there was .004 clearance between the spindle and bushing. He pressed out the old bushings, machined new ones, line bored them, and pressed them in. There is now .001 clearance between the spindle and the new bushings. The machinist also micro polished the spindle, cleaned all of the remaining parts, put in new oil, and declared it finished. Dertonarm was emphatic that I install the FR64s 231.5 mm from the spindle to the center of the bearing instead of 230mm as the manual recommends (as well as the template FR provide with the arm. The machinist made a tool from barstock that fits over the spindle of the TNT and has a hole drilled at the other end with the center at exactly 231.5mm. He machined a tramel point that fits in the hole so you can mark the armboard with the exact spot for the correct distance. This tool was used on my new armboard and the hole was precisely drilled for the FR64s. I used the Dennesen Soundtracker to set up the cartridge as recommended by Dertonarm and VTF was set using a digital scale. I have the SDS for my TNT and speed was checked and set using the KAB strobe. I am telling you all of this so that you understand that I went through great pains to install this arm correctly. The cartridge I used during this time was my almost new Benz Glider SL.

I found the FR64s much more difficult/time consuming to set up compared to other pivoted arms I have used over the years. Some of you may disagree, but this is my experience. Most pivoted arms, once you have the cartridge installed, you slide on the main counterweight, make sure the anti-skating is set to zero, move the counterweight until the arm floats level, set the counterweight scale to 0, and then turn it until you have the correct VTF and bingo-Jed's a millionaire. Then you set your anti-skating for whatever makes your socks roll up and down, and your pretty much done. After that you just start dialing your cartridge alignment in with your favorite alignment jig and readjust your VTF. Not so with the FR64s. The FR64s has a main counterweight, a dynamic stabilizer weight, and an anti-skating weight that all must be installed. I am not going to go through all of the necessary steps to get this arm set up, but trust me, if you have never set up a FR64s, it is more difficult than your average pivoted arm that I am used to. Again thanks to Dertonarm for all of the help during this process and Syntax offered some help to me as well which I also appreciate.

Before I removed the ET-2 I broke out a NOS Maxell UD 35-180 tape (I love this tape by the way). I recorded a selection of songs (at 15 ips 2 track on my Otari MX-55)that would showcase the FR64s arm's ability to boogie in the bass as well as track the many dynamic swings that many of these cuts have. I recorded the following songs:

Lyle Lovett-My baby don't tolerate
Lucinda Williams-Righteously
Herb Alpert-Rotation (from the MoFi version)
Talking Heads-Burning down the house
Herbie Hancock-Rocket (from the 12" single)

After I had the FR64s installed for about a week and had it as tweaked out as I knew how to make it, I re-recorded the above selections in reverse order on the same tape. That way at least I had one cut that would play back to back.

Now some of you had sent me emails asking if I had any preliminary findings to share and I demurred. I never claimed to have the fastest ears in the west so I like to take my time and make sure I know what I am talking about so I don't have to eat a plateful of crow later (which I have certainly done before). Well, the jury is in for me, and it is my opinion that the ET-2 is much the better arm. The only thing the ET-2 gives up to the FR64s is a bit of bass punch, but I don't think the bass from the 64s sounds as natural as that from the ET-2. The bass from the 64s almost seems detached from the rest of the music if that makes any sense. There is a myth that linear tracking arms don't have good bass or can't reproduce the bottom octave at all. This is nonsense in my opinion. I can speak for the ET-2 and tell you confidently that it reproduce great bass.

MikeL and I sort of got into an off-topic discussion on the TP forum. MikeL stated (and please correct me if I not capturing the essence of what you said Mike) that he thought his Rockport linear tracking arm was superior to pivoted arms because it tracks the grooves the way they were cut and that as a result, it doesn't have any phase errors. MikeL went on to say that all pivoted arms only have two null points where the geometry is correct and that results in phase errors across the remaining points outside of the null. I didn't agree with Mike's point about phase-I thought Mike was confusing zenith with overhang. Incorrect zenith will affect phase, but I certainly had never heard that pivoted arms caused phase problems across the record except for the null points. What Mike did say and I agree with is that you can tell a big difference between linear tracking arms and pivoted arms. For me, a properly set up linear tracking arm sounds like a master tape with all that implies vice sounding like a good recording. There is a "wholeness" about the sound of linear tracking arms. Music just flows like it does in real life and it feels right. The FR64s and other pivoted arms don't capture that. They almost seem like they are stitching the music together as they go-almost digital like in comparison to linear tracking arms if that makes any sense to you. Another apt comarison would be looking at a picture taken by a cheap digital camera and comparing that picture to one taken from a top-notch film camera. You really can't compare the two in terms of ultimate sound quality as the linear tracking arm is just cut from a different cloth. I know that will set some people's teeth on edge, but sorry, the truth is the truth. I really do think the secret is the fact that the linear tracking arm is tracing the record the way it was cut instead of tracing an arc across the record with incorrect geometry 99% of the time. You can argue that the errors are slight when using 10" and longer tonearms, but errors they are. Also, the other benefit to linear tracking arms in my mind is no anti-skating is required. That is one less thing to fiddle with and neurose over. The sound of music from a linear tracking arm lives and breathes in a way that music does in real life and it is all cut from the same cloth. Pivoted arms that I have heard can't capture that. Unless you have heard a good linear tracking arm in your system, you won't know what I am talking about and you can be happy with what you have.

In closing, I know that the FR64s is not the most expensive pivoted arm in the world and some of you may sniff your upturned nose and say I should have used a "better" arm. I am really not going to listen to any of that drivel. I spent around $3K setting up this experiment and I know that the FR64s is considered a damn fine tonearm which is why I bought it. I am also finished with discussions about linear tracking arms being harder on cartridges and they can't have great bass. I had many years of great service with my Van den Hul MC-10 in an ET-2. My Denon 103R did develop a slight twist in the cantilever, but that may or may not have been caused by the ET-2. You are supposed to use high compliance cartridges with the ET-2 and not low compliance cartridges like the Denon 103R. The Benz Glider is a much better match with the ET-2 and it sounds way better than the 103R. Even if it is true that linear tracking arms cause greater wear to the cartridge suspension-so what? Most audiophiles change their cartridges more frequently than they change their underwear and they would never know. MikeL has the same experience that I had and that is he saw no wear over years with his Van den Hul. But even if it is true that linear tracking arms cause greater wear and tear to a cartridge, that is a small price to pay for the superior sound over the life of the cartridge.

I reinstalled my ET-2 last night and I haven't stopped grinning since. There is no doubt that if I would have made the recording of the ET-2 with the bearing improvements to my TNT, it would sound even better than it does. My LP setup has never sounded better now that my TNT bearing has been massaged and the ET-2 is back. I stayed up until way-late o'clock last night because I just didn't want to stop listening to music. Over and out.
mepearson

Showing 9 responses by lewm

Thanks, guys. The thought of trying to lift any one of my at least 70-lb tts from the rear whilst standing at the front and also playing with the lateral balance weight was not a happy one. I did adjust the lateral balance of the DV505 with the table level, as per DT's suggestion, so I guess I will leave well enough alone.

DT, I by no means meant to imply that the lateral balance weight is not needed with a straight-pipe tonearm, I just meant that the need for it is a bit less than when using an S-shaped or J-shaped arm tube. This must have given license to eliminate it entirely, for good or ill. Or at least that is my only explanation for why it has been omitted in the modern era of tonearms.
Dear Meperson, I was delighted with your open-mindedness in the first instance, when you decided to temporarily ditch your ET2 in favor of a pivoted arm. Kudos again go to you for the way in which you conducted your comparison. It is unavoidable that some will say you did not choose the "correct" pivoted tonearm, but that's life in the big ether. Your results are fascinating. I've never heard an FR tonearm, but I am familiar with the ET2, so I get half an idea of what you are saying.
Dear Oilmanjo, As Mepearson will no doubt also tell you, stress on the cantilever was a hot topic in Mepearson's first thread, which he started by declaring the superiority of linear tracking tonearms.

Dear DT, Since you have such a broad experience with past and present linear tracking tonearms, may I pick your brain regarding the current crop? What do you think of the Trans-fi Terminator tonearm(s), as compared to the ET2 and other linear trackers that can be purchased for ca US$1000? Thanks for any input. I am rather attracted to the Trans-fi products.
I am with Dertonearm on this one. There are SO many sources of phase error in a typical audio system and in anyone's listening room that what's happening with the stylus is a drop in the bucket. Plus also the "phase linearity" of a particular linear tracking tonearm would be a product of its mechanism, as well as of its basic topology. So, I think there may be large differences among different linear trackers. But maybe "phase" is the wrong term to describe what Mike might be talking about, as he suggests.
Dear Nilthepill, I don't think the aphorism "Garbage in; garbage out" applies here. It would be applicable to a situation where one expects a "bad" sounding LP to sound "good", because one is using a $150,000-turntable. In this case, phase distortion can be assumed to be just phase distortion wherever it occurs. However, the question remains whether the distortions that Mike perceives are truly due to phase aberrations or are just the best descriptor he can think of for what he is hearing. If it's not really phase disortion but something else that occurs at the level of transduction, then all bets are off.
Dear DT, My Dynavector DV505 has the lateral balance weight, too. And after I became familiar with it, I began to notice that this was a feature on many of the best Japanese tonearms of the 80s and 90s. However, that feature seems to have vanished entirely from the design of even the most expensive pivoted tonearms these days, including the Dynavector DV507 and the MkII version. Why do you think this is the case?

And I must admit I am not sure how to use it correctly; I set it so that the arm is stable in the lateral plane, when VTF =0 and anti-skate is OFF. This mandated bringing the lateral balance weight in as close as possible to the main vertical shaft. I am not sure that makes sense. The English translation of the DV505 instruction manual leaves something to be desired in terms of clarity. Have I used the correct method? Thanks.
I did some web searching since posting my question. It seems that the lateral balance weight is mostly made necessary by the S-shaped or J-shaped arm tubes prevalent on the vintage Japanese tonearms, because such shapes put most of the tonearm mass to the right or to the outside of a line drawn from the stylus tip to the pivot. With a straight pipe, the lateral balance weight is less of a necessity, although it would still be of some use due to the offset angle at the headshell. There were several opinions regarding how to set the balance weight. The most common method appears to be to lift the rear of the tt by a small amount and then set the balance weight so the tonearm (set for 0 VTF and 0 anti-skate and "floating") does not shift position during this maneuver. For the Dynavector, I am not sure this would work well, because of the magnetic arm rest which would prevent free motion whilst lifting the rear of the table. Moreover, the DV505 manual says nothing about lifting the tt. I'll figure it out.
Ddriveman, It is interesting that you learned to lift the front of the table. I did find some old posts on Vinyl Asylum recommending the same strategy. But the majority were for lifting the rear. When I thought about it, lifting the front end would cause the tonearm, with or without a lateral balance weight, to want to swing around all the way to the rear extreme of its arc. That did not seem like a good idea. However, I certainly am not trying to contradict you, if it worked for you.

DT, Headshell or no headshell, an S- or J-shaped arm tube still has most of its mass well to one side of the straight line between stylus and pivot, whereas a straight pipe, most popular these days, will be less extremely displaced to one side of that line. This was my only point. But, like Ddriveman, I am interested to learn of another way to set the lateral balance that does not involve lifting one end or the other of the turntable, which is an idea I do not like either.