An older post, but that may explain problems I had with an old table. No matter what I did I couldnt get rid of the woofers pumping.The real important design consideration for any tone arm is its pivots for vertical lift. They must be (in line of course) and that line has to be parallel to the mounting screws center line. This keeps the arm from going into an azimuth arc when it encounters a warp. Its an azimuth thing. That is why most tonearms, whether straight or "S" shaped, have a specific alignment design intent. In otherwords, while the arm is arcing up and down when it encounters the warp, its also azimuth arcing because the pivots are not in line with the cartridge mounting screws (and thus the cartridge alignment).
This is why you will see the pivots at an odd angle in relationship to the tonearm. I have one turntable (a Sony PS-X7) that did not follow these rules. In real world applications, it may not be a big deal, but with moderately warped records, azimuth smear may be seen and heard as a revolutionary thump, and may cause revolutionary woofer pumping, because the contact area of the stylus shifts, azimuth wise.
Otherwise, both tonearms produce the same quality of playback. The "S" shape is more for looks (the cartridge may look "crooked" to some non-audiophiles on a straight tonearm).
'ner
The brush does damp the arm/cartridge resonance. Aiming to get the resonance within a specific band is an attempt to mitigate the effects of resonance, but damping the resonance is more effective. The ultimate damping system is that designed by Townshend:The proof is the introduction of the carbon fiber brush that Shure began putting on their topline cartridges. They claimed that it was to better track warped records but if I come across a warped record in my collection I will throw it out and still have 11,999 records left. Some advocates of the brush say it helps reduce resonances where their cartridge is mismatched to their tonearm but isn't it more judicious to get the match right in the first place?
Hi thereThe discussion of manufacturing cost of straight vs S or J shaped tonearms is a little off kilter. I reviewed pictures of 50 of the most expensive tonearms made and found that 37 of the fifty were straight arms. Only 13 were S or J shaped and two of them were vintage arms (SME II's and III's). So the guy selling you a $5,000 tt wants a little higher profit margin and makes his tonearm straight? I don't think so.
What I think has straightened out the tonearm is the need to accomplish two things; 1) eliminate extraneous lateral balance weights which are needed to reduce torsional imbalance of S and J arms and 2) to dampen out the resonances coming down the tonearm from the cartridge. Let me explain. Hanging more weights along the tonearm will simply muddy the resonance since the weights are off-axis and begin to vibrate with their own frequency. The tonearm already is off-axis itself so the lateral weights will double the the mass that is vibrating off-axis. Why is this the case? Any bends in the tonearm will generate an additional vector to the original resonance creating a more complex waveform passing down the armtube to the pivot point. Irrespective of other cartridge/tonearm resonance considerations, there is the all important impact of resonance on the pivot whether that is a knife edge, a gimballed bearing or a unipivot. Too much resonance will cause the pivot to "chatter" which is why the better tonearms are filled with resonance absorbing materials inside the tube. But some resonance is still going to get through and the next opportunity to absorb or dampen it and reduce pivot chatter" is with the counterbalance weights. The optimum point at which to hang counterbalance weights is just past the pivot point thereby minimizing effective mass. This was true for the SME III and is true for most of the new exotic tonearms. The counterweight acts to dampen out tonearm resonances by their mass and minimizing the pivot-to-weight distance also works to reduce oscillation which would feed back resonance to the tonearm. Finally, shorter, i.e. straight, tonearms result in resonances reaching the dampening counterbalance mass faster which is a separate benefit.
Speaking of extraneous "thingies" hung off the tonearm, one of my pet peeves is the stylus guard. Who in their right mind thinks it is a good idea to have a open-ended plasticky thing rattling around at the business end of the cartridge within a hairsbreath of the stylus. Yes, I know that it protects that expensive diamond tipped cartridge from ruin but it also degrades the sound. The proof is the introduction of the carbon fiber brush that Shure began putting on their topline cartridges. They claimed that it was to better track warped records but if I come across a warped record in my collection I will throw it out and still have 11,999 records left. Some advocates of the brush say it helps reduce resonances where their cartridge is mismatched to their tonearm but isn't it more judicious to get the match right in the first place?
You could find out what your arm/cartridge resonance is more accurately than relying on published data and calculators - by measuring it. It isn't that hard to do. Download "Audacity" (it's free software) and record the lead-in groove of a record, then use the spectrum analyzer to look for a peak in the spectrum. That's the resonant frequency of the arm/cartridge.just a complaint........i've gone to vinylengine, and tried other sources....but that calculator is useless to me as i cannot find the masses of my turntable arm, the stock headshell, the screws, or the V15 III......I wish i could. I'm kinda a spec person and like to match things up....
I have a digital tracking scale......should i just use that?....Pl 518
Audacity has a spectrum analyzer in it?!You could find out what your arm/cartridge resonance is more accurately than relying on published data and calculators - by measuring it. It isn't that hard to do. Download "Audacity" (it's free software) and record the lead-in groove of a record, then use the spectrum analyzer to look for a peak in the spectrum. That's the resonant frequency of the arm/cartridge.
You could find out what your arm/cartridge resonance is more accurately than relying on published data and calculators - by measuring it. It isn't that hard to do. Download "Audacity" (it's free software) and record the lead-in groove of a record, then use the spectrum analyzer to look for a peak in the spectrum. That's the resonant frequency of the arm/cartridge.