Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

Raul, I over-reacted to your earlier remark. We’re all here to learn. And as I’ve said, I am in no position to make a final judgement except to say the Viv has no glaring audible issues compared to the conventional pivoted tonearms I own.

All the learning that can be had in relation to the audible experience being encountered when using the 'Viv' is very well documented across a variety of forums.

Any descriptions using Math to attempt to make the reported on Positive Experiences more understandable, is going to be real uphill climb.

Why not spare oneself the effort, and relish in the audible qualities that are without doubt, quite discernable.  

Dear friends: Maybe some of you already experienced that we did some mistakes when were doing the cartridge alignment with either Löfgren A or B. Well, I did it like 2-3 times with out take in count my alignment errors that were in the overhang: 2-3mm longer or shorter.

I remember that even that tracking distortion level goes up that existed not mistracking or any kind of distortion that I could detect and was till the second day listening sessions when I " feel " that something was not exactly as I was accustom too. The error colorations was " good " colorations and remember that at least with one of the times the high frequency reproduction was"  better "  than before but that " better " was only added distortons.

It’s not easy to detect what we are missing when errors goes up, at least not in one listening session and with out knowing that exist an alignment error.. What I detected at the second day was that the MUSIC  rhythm/beat was different and not good enough as with the correct alignment.

Any one of you can do it on purpose as a test and listen what happens in your room/system and what can detect . As we know different kind of distortion levels can like us : sometimes are very " nice distortions " and like us and let that way.

Well, I like that my mind stay calm, so I try to avoid higher any kind of added distortion or lost signal information.

R.

I think Lew is a brave man for trying something as offbeat as the Viv arm.

The ideal arm would make no sacrifices. It would have zero TAE and zero skating. It would have frictionless, noiseless bearings and perfectly rigidity. It would have single wires from cartridge clips to XLRs or RCAs.

Who would argue with that description of the perfect tonearm?  Not I. I would add one more property to a list of the desired qualities of a perfect tonearm: Such a tonearm should elicit no eccentric side forces on the groove walls, as the stylus moves across the LP.  That is, the stylus should always ride right down the middle of the groove, to the degree that its own properties (compliance, etc) affect is tracking ability.  This is where most linear trackers fall down.