Tonearm recommendation

We've run the Feickert table at the last two Munich shows with excellent results, using a Triplanar arm.

The Triplanar has the most durable bearings used in the industry, being the hardest metal bearings made anywhere at any price. It is also one of the most adjustable arms made and features a damped arm tube so it won't talk back to the cartridge. Three version are available- the original 9" version, a 9" version using carbon fiber composite arm tube, and a 12" version (also carbon fiber).

I have several LPs that I recorded and so have the master tapes. So far the Triplanar has made the best presentation of those LPs, besting arms that cost twice or three times as much. Image stability and the ability to get the bass right are things that really seem to set it apart.

One thing the Triplanar as taught me since it is so adjustable is that the ability to track the cartridge correctly is far more important than what cartridge you have!! It is a true gem in modern arms.

Hello Crazy Bill, Yes, I'm involved with Atma-Sphere.

I guess my post had as much effect on the argumentative nature of the discussion as a loud burp.

I can stop any time I want to.

There are two kinds of damping used in tone arms. One is damping of the arm tube- in this case its impossible to overdamp it, except that there might be the issue of adding too much mass to the arm!

The other is to damp the **motion** of the arm. This is done with a damping trough or similar. In this case there is no question that the arm can be overdamped!

I'm just putting this out there in case there is confusion about what is meant by 'overdamping'. We need to be talking about the same things!

I like the Triplanar because its arm tube is well damped; independently of that it has a damping trough in case you want to damp its motion.

Dear atmasphere: You was the person that in 2011-2012 posted that we can’t overdamp the TT/platter TT " and from your today post sure we can overdamp if we interfere with its natural movement.

I suspected that was the case and so made sure that I clarified my position, which is that there are two forms of damping- one of which cannot be overdone as I had previously stated, and the other (which I never use) which most definitely can!

Does anyone here have any experience comparing the Durand and the Reed ?

I've not heard that comparison but I have heard it against the Triplanar. I used my own LP (IOW, one I recorded myself, Canto General) for the comparison. The Talea was very sweet but simply lacked the bass impact. No amount of adjustment brought it out. Its easy to see why when you look at the arm design- the bearings really aren't in the right place so what happens with bass notes is you loose tracking pressure. Of course, there may well be other variables we couldn't lock down but that is one that is pretty obvious.