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Theory behind well tempered tonearm?

Hello Goners.
I am curious on the Well Temperd tonearm alignments.
In the normal pivotal tonearm, the S2P distance is fixed, and follow is the offset angle at where the cartridge is fixed to reduce the most distortion when we mount the cartridge correctly by using the appropriate protractor.
Now comes the Well Temperd, the pivot is the ball half sunk in oil and hung by the strings. That means the P2S distance is not fixed. Offset angle is fixed (because the cartridge is mounted on the headshell). So, distortions are almost appeared everywhere. Why Well Temperd owners never complain about it. All I have read online are the sound is smooth and accurate.
Why so?
dangcaonguyen
dangcaonguyen OP
204 posts
 
Bump!!
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
834 posts
 
If you go to the Well Tempered Lab website you can read about it under the Blog section.
I have the Amadeus MKII and was skeptical about this before I heard it.
dangcaonguyen OP
204 posts
 
Thanks @sebrof 
I will read it over this weekend
whart's avatar
whart
2,967 posts
 
I owned an original Well-Tempered Turntable many years ago and don’t really remember any shift of the arm fore and aft. The fluid in which the paddle (now, I guess a golfball?) was suspended was fairly viscous (thick) and acted as a damper as well as a substitute for more conventional bearings. The biggest issue was the amount of fluid used since that could change the sound. I had tricked out my table with a variety of mods, including a heavy brass clamp around the fluid cup, a more up-to-date motor, a different platter and perhaps some change to the arm wand (I don’t remember, it’s been quite a long time).
The table was a very good performer in the era of Linn at reasonable cost. It did not have the gravitas of more expensive, bigger tables I subsequently owned. I had a by then long in the tooth Technics SP-10 at the time I bought the Well-Tempered (in the mid-’80s?). Now the SP-10 has been restored and almost ready to use in my second system. The Well Tempered is long gone, but I had a positive ownership experience with it. I also used a range of different cartridges with it over the years it was in operation, all without issue.
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