“S” arms Denon
- Thread starter Kgveteran
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Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
tonearm effective mass to accommodate different cartridges. Since most 'extra' tonearms were lost over time the remaining few are expensive today.
ETI_5000
Super Member
On most Denon turntable models which had a choice of straight or s-shaped tubes, the s-shaped tubes were all optional at extra expense, with the straight tubes being standard, according to user manuals and the Denon Museum website. So not all buyers would have spent the extra money to buy one, and even if they did, they sometimes got lost, or the original owner died, and their heirs didn’t realize another tonearm was stored in a drawer or cupboard, so they often won’t be included when you buy a used turntable.
While what Blue Shadow said is true as far as ‘ordinary tonearm’ Denons go (e.g. DP-60L or DP-60M), some models had electronically-controlled tonearms – the Dynamic Servo Tracer tonearms, which all had Q-Damping controls.
Dynamic Servo Tracer tonearm models with the s-shaped tonearm option included the DP-57L, DP-62L, DP-67L and DP-72L. The extra s-shaped tonearm allowed a slightly wider range of cartridge masses to be balanced. Because the tonearm electronics adjusted to suit any cartridge compliance, making it a perfect match, both shaped tonearms acted more like tonearms of zero mass (or very close to it) than as if they had an effective mass, so they suited virtually all cartridge compliances.
So with a Dynamic Servo Tracer model, the only real reason to buy the s-shaped tonearm tube would be if you had a favourite cartridge which was too heavy for the straight tonearm to balance it, or you wanted to have several universal headshells with different cartridges mounted on them for ease of changing cartridges.
While what Blue Shadow said is true as far as ‘ordinary tonearm’ Denons go (e.g. DP-60L or DP-60M), some models had electronically-controlled tonearms – the Dynamic Servo Tracer tonearms, which all had Q-Damping controls.
Dynamic Servo Tracer tonearm models with the s-shaped tonearm option included the DP-57L, DP-62L, DP-67L and DP-72L. The extra s-shaped tonearm allowed a slightly wider range of cartridge masses to be balanced. Because the tonearm electronics adjusted to suit any cartridge compliance, making it a perfect match, both shaped tonearms acted more like tonearms of zero mass (or very close to it) than as if they had an effective mass, so they suited virtually all cartridge compliances.
So with a Dynamic Servo Tracer model, the only real reason to buy the s-shaped tonearm tube would be if you had a favourite cartridge which was too heavy for the straight tonearm to balance it, or you wanted to have several universal headshells with different cartridges mounted on them for ease of changing cartridges.