What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

@pindac ​​@rsf507 , Just like mass loaded turntables, mass loaded arm pods do not work. Low frequency sound is misleadingly powerful. A cement mixing truck traveling down the street will shake your foundation. Earthquakes are low frequency waves traveling through the earth. As long as everything is shaking in unison you are OK but, if there is any differential the cartridge will pick it up. As the turntable and tonearm pods have different masses and centers of gravity  environmental rumble is going to create that differential. Mass loaded anything is layperson intuition. The best defense against any environmental sound pollution is a tonearm rigidly mounted to the platter's chassis that is suspended with a resonance frequency of 1-3 Hz.  

A tonearm that has a "sound" is defective. The best equipment always sounds "damped" at first as people are use to listening to the euphonic distortions created by all but the very best equipment. Tonality or amplitude response is a moving target and people will prefer frequency response curves based on what they are use to listening to and the vast majority of audiophiles have no idea what they are listening to because they have never measured it. I can tell you exactly what my own preferences are because I have measured it and have the ability to adjust it in 1 Hz increments. But tonality is only one aspect of reproduction. The ability of a system to image is a much more fragile characteristic and is not so easily adjusted. It requires all aspects of reproduction to be correct. The pile up of euphonic distortions and phase aberrations destroy a system's ability to cast a convincing image. When is comes to vinyl playback there are so many ways the illusion can be ruined, extraneous vibration getting to the stylus, pitch aberration coming from speed deviation mostly from warped records, unchecked resonance traveling back and forth in the tonearm (old SMEs are a great example of this). The Kuzma 4 point is not over damped. The SME is underdamped! 

@rauliruegas , I'm not sure what you have against the TriPlanar. On paper it is a fine design if a bit overly complicated. I have played with one and it is well constructed. I have never listed to one in a reference system. There are too many very experienced people that really like it for it to be a bad arm. 

@atmasphere , You and Raul both love music and I hate to see the contentiousness between you. Raul can be very difficult to translate at times and he has a knack for saying things in what seems to us an adversarial way which he truly does not mean. We all have our opinions and can be in this "hobby" if you will for a variety of reasons which can frequently clash. It is why Howard Johnson's made 28 flavors. 

Raul can be very difficult to translate at times and he has a knack for saying things in what seems to us an adversarial way which he truly does not mean.

@mijostyn He also has a knack for saying things in an adversarial way that he truly means- he's made that clear enough. I don't take offense though- I've never met him so its hard to take it personal.

Raul does not need an apologist.  He is what he is. By all accounts of those who have met him in person, he is indeed a charming and amiable person.  Not always does he behave that way on line. I feel it's OK to call him out on his behavior at those moments.

Mijostyn, For a person who seems to reside in rural New Hampshire (and what part of New Hampshire is NOT "rural"), you sure have a lot of cement trucks and earthquakes with which to contend. Portsmouth is the only city I know of that may not be categorized as rural in NH. I live in Bethesda, MD, which is suburban but not rural, and we never have a problem with heavy trucks or certainly not earthquakes in my neighborhood.  (Yes, I know seismic disturbances travel great distances, but they also lose energy along the way until barely perceptible and brief in duration.) You could move down to more bucolic New York City to avoid those problems.  Just as you accord some respect to the Triplanar based on the testimony of many others, so too I accord some respect to an arm pod done right, although I personally would never go that route, because so many others seem happy with theirs.  I cannot always discern what Pindac is doing, but it appears he is cognizant of the necessity to build his arm pods to be rock stable.

My experiences about and from other audiophiles tells me that's almost imposibel to the stylus tip " been removed " from the cantilever with out any damage to the cantilever.

In my own experience, this is quite common for MC carts with boron cantilevers. It's happened to a local friend, with his Ortofon Jubilee MC getting snagged on a fuzzy sweater sleeve. It's happened to my Koetsu Onyx, when a girlfriend sent it jetting hard down and across the record surface. In both cases, the boron cantilever and suspension appeared completely undamaged; the stylus had simply released its bond. 

If it was an aluminum pipe cantilever, it's more likely that would have crumpled first. But boron rod is strong and stiff. Also, most modern MC cartridges have very robust suspensions & dampers. By comparison Ortofon 2M with its tiny little rubber ring suspension will give way long before a stylus is yanked out. 

With boron MC's, apparently the stylus glue bond is often the weak point. 

@mijostyn  I have experience of Mass Plinths (multiple years) and in conjunction with this, have had encounters with numerous TT owners who have adopted the Mass Method as their choice for a Plinth.

I have met lesser who have adopted the Standalone Tonearm Pod as a means to mount a Tonearm and even less who have adapted a TT to have a Swing Out Cantilever Armboard as a mounting design for a Tonearm.

If I were to spend a little time, using Web Searches to discover where the usage of the above methods are to be found and to gauge popularity.

I don't expect to find many utilising a Swing Out Cantilever Arm Mount unless a part belonging to a Brands TT Design, not many Plinths Only are seen produced to mount a Tonearm using this methodology.

Similar Time spent searching will certainly show where there is a popularity to adopt the Standalone Tonearm Pod, I know this as not too many years past I used a selection of witnessed designs to design a Tonearm Pod for a period of trialling I was getting to the point of putting into place.

As for a similar time searching for Mass Plinths in use, it won't be long before the idea of Bookmarking Pages will be abandoned as the quantity to be found is substantial.

A said in previous post over a long period of time,  I am a advocate of rigidly coupled, but also I am an advocate of allowing those with an interest, curiosity, want, to pursue it and have their experience. The methodology adopted is able to replay recorded music just fine.

When these individuals following their curiosity, want, interest, settle down with drink in hand and commence with enjoying the fruits of their work. I don't really see a concern for a Earthquake making a visit being too much of a Concern, maybe just a snippet of a concern for a overly noisy dead wax or invasive tick or pop. A contamination on a Styli can prove to be quite frustrating, and will ruin any replay, it is surprising how many times it is sat out and persevered to the point it has to be dealt with. 

There is only a untruth being told if a user of Vinyl claims there Styli is pristine clean for every replay put on by themselves.

In general 'most users' of vinyl enjoy the required rituals to get the better from it, but they are Human, they are not fanatics, and each will have their own level of expressed zeal.   

There are items you have raised that will come into a discussion now and again, they are discussed as they are present, and in most cases met to varying degrees of being present, each can have its own influence on the function of the parts required to produce the replay.. 

The influence is maybe unwanted, but it is a reality, it is present and it is lived with.

The Influence is not removed but some will go to lengths to manage the condition.

Reality is that the success of the management within a Home are pretty much assessed subjectively, so individuals choose their poison and the level of toxicity they are willing to persevere.   

Most who are knowing of the influences being present are thoroughly enjoying the musical experience being created, however flawed it is in relation to the ideal but  unobtanium perfect equipment / environment.

What's more is the individuals with such flaws equipment and methodology used  to manage the condition, are happy to introduce other's to experience the flawed equipment in use, in the flawed environment.  

As stated a few post back.

" Lets see which are those, whom choose to tell another how to mount their own Tonearms in conjunction with their own TT/TT's in their own Home ".

@lewm You have stated about myself,

"but it appears he is cognizant of the necessity to build his arm pods to be rock stable ".

I have never built a Standalone Tonearm Pod, I have produced a design for one, which if produced as Batch of Three, was once seen as a simplistic method to enable a variety of Tonearms of various lengths to be used in conjunction with a TT Trial Period, that was to have a TT used with Multiple Designs for a Platter Bearing.

Bearing Exchanges were to be carried out as a Comparison Trial.

I had managed to be offered from across the Globe a selection of Bearing Designs produced for one TT.

The Swap out of the Bearing was relatively easy without too much downtime due to exchanges.

From the producers of the Bearings, a Couple expressed an interest to see how different Tonearms were deemed to function when encountering the design for their Bearing.

I offered a way to accommodate this, by the means of suggesting a Standalone Tonearm Pod, strange how these engineer minded individuals did not refute that as a proposal, or the design when made known, when all bearing suppliers got wind of it still no challenges.  

The TT to be used for the Trials was with its own Mass Plinth and only able to accommodate a Tonearm with a Rega Geometry. Again strange how these engineer minded individuals were not challenging the Mass Plinth TT in use, it was agreed the TT was to be the one used.

As made known I no longer choose the Mass Plinth or the TT mounted on it as my first choice, the Mass Plinth and TT are reserved for demonstration and loans only.