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Well Tempered Signature turntable and arm

Hello,
since yesterday i have a Well Tempered Signature turntable with matching tonearm.
Unfortunatelly there are so little informations about this product.
The only source for me is on vinylengine.com, from the seller and from an ad reputedly of 1989, but i am not shure if some of these informations are correct:

- prduction date: at the latest from 1989 till at least 1995
- 50 pieces made
- more expensive than WT Reference
- it should be exposed in the Museum of Modern Arts in NY (but i have just found the Well Tempered chair by Ron Arad, sic!)

Have you any correct informations about this nice turntable?

Maybe any cartridge recommendations? I will try my Decca / London Reference Cartridge and DV XV-1s, i think both of them match it quite good.
breezer
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,493 posts
 
I love Elliot. Bought his demo Atma-Sphere M-60's right as he was giving up the line, when he still had the storefront. A really principled, ethical guy.
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
I had the Atma-Sphere M-60's in the system for a couple of years on loan from a friend. Lovely sounding amps for sure. Ralph's audio gear makes music.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,493 posts
 
Yeah, but 8 power tubes for only 60w! Double that for two channels. I didn't ask Elliot why he was giving up the Atma-Sphere line. I know he liked the Joule products a lot, but that was a while back.
mcshiv
7 posts
 
Back to the WWT Signature Turntable!!!

I snapped one of the fishing lines holding the arm in the silicone bath. I called the distributors mentioned above and finally took it into a rep -- The new Best Buy's of Atlanta. A new life, a new day, will keep the community posted.

WTR cartridge, suggest Benz, Grado or Dyanavector (on lower end TT's)

Mcshiv
goodmusic
18 posts
 

An old thread but one comment needs to be corrected, because two statements there are completly wrong:

Vicdamone wrote:
The carbon Well Tempered arms were sand filled which made them slightly heavier than the metal arms. There are various arm tower designs which in the end do the job.

This is not the case:
The Carbon Well Tempered Reference tonearm was NOT filled with sand!
It was a lighter design!

I know this very well because I had the 9" Reference arm on my WT Reference but I received a unique 10" carbon armtube for my WT Signature to replace its stainless-steel armtube! This custommade 10" armtube again had no sand inside the tube!

Sand was used in the early WT Classic tonarm as well as in the Signature tonearm. (as well as in the later tonearms with golfball-silicone bearings)

After I had the armtube of the Signature arm replaced with the new non-sandfilled carbon armtube it sounded better!

Regarding the newer golfball versions:
I never liked them, they weren't that sophisticated for a precise setup.

I think that the Reference and Signature where the peak of WT tonearm design

BUT:
having used both for years I had to realize that despite the very nice sound:

!!! My Well Tempered tonearms bent cantilevers of cartridges !!!

I started from the beginning to use thinner silicon-fluid for damping which Mr. Brakemeier, designer of the amazing Apolypt turntable recommended to use
(he also recommended ZYC cartridges which I agree, they were a perfect match). So the lets call it bearing friction was for sure lower than with the thicker orig. silicone fluid.

But all my cartridges after a period of max. 500 hours developed "bent cantilevers":
Seen from the front this bent was towards the right side, i.e. outer groove of the record. This happened because the resistance/friction of the silicone was still too high.

I killed a Koetus Urushi Tsugaru, a Urushi Wazima as well as two expensive ZYX cartridges. 

Too bad.

I would never again use a WT tonearm, too expensive considering the damage done to those cartridges.

 

 

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