Tonearm recommendation

Thanks Lewm,
I absolutely intend to dial in proper azimuth adjustment no matter which tonearm I am using. I only meant I didn’t need the on the fly adjustment of the Reed 3P which Thomas referrred to. Once I set it optimally with the Feickert program for whichever cartridge/tonearm I’m using I intend to leave it. So adjusting it at the headshell once is just fine with me.

It’s good to hear you are so high on the 2A. IF I move away from the FR66s, it is definitely on my short list. I’ll also have to check out the OL arms that Thomas referred to. They look promising. The Moerch also deserves a look.

That said, however, if I do make a change, based upon what I’ve read, the Durand Talea2 really looks special.

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

Thanks for your input.

Cheers, Crazy Bill

Hi Bill, tonight i made some pictures from the Conqueror. You can show them under vinyl here www.galerie-jumpy.de

Cheers, Tom

Dear mmakshak:  """  I can see, in theory, why static balanced would be superior, but I wonder if just a little resistance, provided by some dynamic balancing, might actually work better in practice(as advocated by the 1/3 dynamic argument).  That might provide a little resistance to big movements and such, while keeping the ringing.at an acceptable level.. """

the best " ringing is no ringing ". and you are right not only on the static balanced tonearm design advantage but about that " resistance " during LP playback.

Certainly the solution is not a dynamic balanced design, the tonearm designers must found out other kind of mechanisms to do it because is need it.

My advise is to stay away of dynamic balanced tonearm designs and obviously on that  non-damped or not well damped ones. Same for the universal headshells.

regards and enjoy the music,
R.

WRM, I've heard the Talea2 with a ZYX Universe cartridge at the home of my neighbor who was then using downstream equipment much like mine. (His system has since undergone a sea change, except for retaining his Galibier turntable and two Durand tonearms.)  It's an imperfect comparison, but I thought the Talea2/UNI combo was absolutely divine.  There's no way to be sure whether it surpassed my Reed 2A, but I'd have to guess that at worst it is just as good. In fact, these two tonearms have me thinking that wood done right is a good choice of material for an arm wand, although I know there are those who would disagree strongly (and I don't care to argue the point). Even Durand has now eschewed the use of wood and gone to some sort of synthetic material for their arm wands.  Seems odd, because the company was founded on the principle that their particular choice of wood from a particular species of tree was key.

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.