What is the effective mass of the Thales? Seems as if it would be very high.
Are linear tracking arms better than pivoted arms?
My answer to this question is yes. Linear tracking arms trace the record exactly the way it was cut. Pivoted arms generally have two null points across the record and they are the only two points the geometry is correct. All other points on the record have a degree of error with pivoted arms. Linear tracking arms don't need anti-skating like pivoted arms do which is another plus for them.
Linear tracking arms take more skill to set up initially, but I feel they reward the owner with superior sound quality. I have owned and used a variety of pivoted arms over the years, but I feel that my ET-2 is superior sounding to all of them. You can set up a pivoted arm incorrectly and it will still play music. Linear tracking arms pretty much force you to have everything correct or else they will not play. Are they worth the fuss? I think so.
Linear tracking arms take more skill to set up initially, but I feel they reward the owner with superior sound quality. I have owned and used a variety of pivoted arms over the years, but I feel that my ET-2 is superior sounding to all of them. You can set up a pivoted arm incorrectly and it will still play music. Linear tracking arms pretty much force you to have everything correct or else they will not play. Are they worth the fuss? I think so.
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The effective mass is 11g, which is not that high and similar to a Rega. Notice the actual Magnesium arm is less than 7 inches. And there's a counterweight to offset the weight of the guiding arm. There's an Thales AV arm, which I think means Aluminum Version, that has a higher effective mass of 20g, perhaps more suitable for heavier cartridges. http://www.tonarm.ch/index.php?page=product The soon to be released "Simplicity" arm is indeed very elegant as opposed to the awkward looking Thales. It's the modern answer to the Garrard Zero-100 with better build quality and precision. Simpler and cheaper but elegant. I am waiting for someone to come up with a clever headshell mechanism that's adaptable to arms with detachable headshell. And I am not talking about the RS Lab headshell but one that has self adjusting tangency mechanism. I await future innovations. _______ |
Here's the initial press release for the Thales "Simplicity" tonearm(.pdf), a more practical approach "Tetragon Solution for tangential tracking". Looks interesting and will be cheaper than their other arms |
My Rockport TT replaced a Goldmund Reference with a T3F tonearm in which I had used a Clearaudio cartridge. Given that the T3F had destroyed, at least one Clearaudio due to lateral deflection, I was concerned that the Rockport arm might have the same problem. Andy explained that the real culprit in most instances of damage to the cartridge suspension is record warps. For this reason, the Rockport uses a vaccuum hold down. At this point, Andy was the distributor for the Vandenhul Grasshopper cartridges which had notorious suspension problems. Andy said that used in his TT, the life of the Grasshopper would be greatly extended (3X). Anecdotally, I bought a Grasshopper at the same time that I purchased the TT and never had a single problem with it. IMHO, a properly designed and executed tangential arm offers some real advantages over a pivoted arm. The problem is that most tangential arms have historically not been well designed or executed. Hope that this helps. |
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