Which tonearm with a Soundsmith The Voice?


Tt is Teres 255.
alanpiga

Showing 10 responses by alanpiga

I am curious about but couldn't find the tonearm effective mass for the SAEC 407/23. If anybody could tell I guess it would be a good piece of information, if only to know what works with the "The Voice" in that regard. On the other hand, I guess it doesn't sound that attractive to buy such an old tonearm. Are there tonearms in current production that work?
Preamp is Air Tight ATC-1 or AUdible Illusions Modulus 3. Power amp is a pair of Wavelength Gemini. Speakers are Cain & Cain Single Ben. Many times sound requires use of my Rel Storm III sub.
I spotted a review of the Aida, another Cartridge from Soundsmith, with the same specs. It was very positive. The tonearm was the SAEC 407/23. Is this tonearm in production?
I received strong advice towards a Schroeder Model 2 with Pertinax arm wand, but at 4000 us $, isn't this a "little" to costly an investment, is this necessary? I would like to think that you don't need to spend that much to get maximum performance from the "The Voice"
There may be low mass tone arms that won't break the bank, I just don't know which. One thing is going to Vinyl Engine and select the tone arms with low mass and then research them online and another one get a direct recommendation from somebody who has used the tonearm, specially with the Soundsmith "the Voice". That will render a lot of effort unnecessary.
I run the vinyl engine tonearm effective mass calculator using 2 gr as mounting hardware (Soundsmith's aluminum screw set) and got the following results for the desired resonance between 8 to 12 Hz (-.82 to 9.16 gr). -.82 gr.: a negative number! there is no lower limit!!! This doesn't correspond with some of the suggestions I have seen. Some suggestions are for 11 or 12 gr. so, practical mass differs from calculated mass. What else is to be considered to determine ideal mass?
8 Hz @ the 22 x 10-6 cm/dyne setting which is the low limit which indicates that an arm with 11 gr mass is still a good match with The Voice. My VPI JMW 12 is I believe somewhere between 11 & 12 gr which wouldn't be too bad!! take in account that (I believe) data from VPI is not reliable, in that, first, it hasn't been published, and when It has been given to me over the Phone by a VPI employee I got the sense that it is not reliable. After 12 years owning this tonearm I still dream with the day when someone will tell me the correct necessary information about this tonearm. Nevertheless, if I go with this tonearm mass of between 11 & 12 gr the combination appears to be ok, interpreting from certain writings that these calculations are just approximations. So, looking for a tonearm with a lower mass, say 9 gr. won't necessarily be and improvement. Hence my belief that nothing compares with direct experience of those who own the cartridge. Yes, I believe the Schroeder would be a clear improvement based on various recommendations and the fact that it appears to be a superlative arm. As far as other lesser arms, I really know nothing, I will try to research the others that were mentioned on this thread online.