Thales Simplicity tonearm review in Stereophile.

Lewm, I hope you are correct about the Schroder LT, as I will have one soon. I was interested in the Thales arms in the past until I found out they will not fit on my TT. Even so the subject of tonearms interests me. Especially linear tracking arms, because they are even more of an engineering challenge.

Great that the principle of linear tracking is undergoing a resurgence with the Thales Simplicity and Schroeder LT. I'm a total convert with my Trans Fi Audio Terminator T3Pro air bearing linear tracker, a total giant killer at a tenth of the price of these models.

I agree with Hiho. . .it seems to me that Fremer botched this review based on all the other commentary available.

I think that the most significant point to Fremer's Review......was the fact that on digital recordings he made using the Thales and a normally pivoted arm......no-one was able to pick which recording used which arm?
This result is confirmed by my experience with many listeners to my normally pivoted tonearms.....who never seem to leap up and exclaim....."ahhh.........null point.....null point" when the cartridge happens to hit the spot just twice on each record's side? :-)

But then again.......on Fremer's digital recordings of his cartridge tests.......the vast majority of listeners preferred MM cartridges in a Mid-Fi arm and table.....to his $8000.00 LOMC Anna cartridge in his Cobra/Caliburn combination?

HighEnd Audio......like religion......is mostly 'faith' based and led.....rather than logic, science and experience based......with a few notable exceptions IMHO?

Henry, Don't you think that Fremer's results with digital recordings made with the Thales vs "normal" pivoted tonearms could as well indicate a failing of the Thales, in terms of its engineering? For example, someone wrote that it has an offset headshell and thus generates skating force. That right there is what you would hope to be rid of, if you are going to the bother and expense of establishing tangency across the LP. (I did not know that about the Thales and was disappointed to read it here.) I think much of the distortion that some claim to hear with pivoted tonearms vs LT ones is due to the constant variations in skating force across the LP, rather than to tracking angle distortion. Then too there is the issue of bearing friction.

It would be more telling if Fremer or one of us would do a double-blind digitized comparison of the Trans-fi or the Schroeder LT, vs a conventional pivoted arm.