Just got a flier from Music Direct showing the new 3D arm at $2500.
I've been experimenting with a home 3D printer, and one of the things it does is internal object complexity. I can vary the matrix inside an object to achieve structural rigidity with low weight. I assume that with a $350,000 printer that lays down one thousandth of an inch with each pass that you can design and produce a truly elegant internal structure for managing vibration. It certainly will take a while to print an object at 0.001" per pass! I think I heard that it takes more than 20 hours per arm.
Also, any tonearm that is cobbled together from parts will have boundary effects, regardless of whether the parts are glued, bolted, welded, etc. However, a single-piece arm formed of the same material, designed carefully should be near-ideal in terms of lack of boundary reflections and introduced vibration. I wonder, as others have mentioned, whether the epoxy material employed is near-ideal. And certainly I wonder about the interface to the needle bearing of the unipivot too.
But I'm excited by the technology, and suspect that it will allow iterative development inexpensively, simply change the program a bit and the next arm will perfectly reflect the design change. I'm not sure I'd be one of the pioneers to buy it, but maybe if it gets some good reviews, I'll take a flyer.
Well done VPI!
