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Audiotechnica ATP-12T tonearm modification project

Dave C

Dave C

Super Member
This is a total experiment on my part, it may fail or I may have something nice. I have a couple of these arms on the shelf as well as an extra SP-25 turntable. Seeing so many reports on straight tone arms that work quite nicely like the Tru-glider, I decided to start playing. The new arm shaft is carbon fiber, the rest is stock other than the lift which I've been making for these arms for several years. I gave it a test run with a 2M blue I had in the drawer today. Nice! There is no need for anti-skate, the arm will stay where ever you set it. Sound seems very detailed from what I remember of the 2M blue. I need to shield the wire and work out a rest for it yet. The base is machined from a solid piece of steel and probably weighs about 10 lbs. I have triangular leveling points on it as well.

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Great bearings, interesting approach :thumbsup:

In about 1974 Garrard claimed to eliminate tonearm tracking error with the “Zero Tracking Error Tonearm” it was straight with a floating headshell. Think it had great potential, especially if one used high end components, like are available today:naughty:


VR
Andy
 
Have more details? Have a spare as well. How did you get the original wand and counterweight stub off? What did you use for the CF shaft?
Thanks

BillWojo
 
cgallery said:
Very nice work!

How will you shield the wiring?
Click to expand...
The carbon fiber shaft seems to shield it fine when a ground is hooked to it. I ordered some fine shielding for the exposed wire today. I didn't want to bring the wire up the shaft of the arm as it was done from the factory. My experience with these arms is that it's to hard to string wire and then I'd have to deal with getting it out of the arm base.
 
BillWojo said:
Have more details? Have a spare as well. How did you get the original wand and counterweight stub off? What did you use for the CF shaft?
Thanks

BillWojo
Click to expand...
The carbon fiber shaft is one piece. As for the old metal shaft there are 2 screws in the bottom of the pivot that hold the metal shaft in place. The shaft that the weight slides on screws to the main shaft. I had to put the carbon shaft in the lathe and thin it a bit to get it to fit. No big deal but the lathe was handy.
 
adnick said:
Great bearings, interesting approach :thumbsup:

In about 1974 Garrard claimed to eliminate tonearm tracking error with the “Zero Tracking Error Tonearm” it was straight with a floating headshell. Think it had great potential, especially if one used high end components, like are available today:naughty:


VR
Andy
Click to expand...
The Zero 100! it had it's issues but I agree it had potential.
 
Once this is all done, if I'm satisfied, I'll install my Nasotec swing headshell and a 2M Black cartridge.
 
Dave C said:
The carbon fiber shaft seems to shield it fine when a ground is hooked to it. I ordered some fine shielding for the exposed wire today. I didn't want to bring the wire up the shaft of the arm as it was done from the factory. My experience with these arms is that it's to hard to string wire and then I'd have to deal with getting it out of the arm base.
Click to expand...

I had one sort of shielding on some exposed wire but found it too stiff. I think because it was tinned copper. I think I needed stainless, and found some on eBay, but found another way in the meantime.
 
More parts arrived this week and a test run was made. Seems like a pretty solid unit, I need to bring it up into my A system this week. I'm going to set it up as a second arm on my turntable and do more testing. Yes, I know I need to clean up the work bench, and thank God for some old tester records.
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I am 90% done with this project. I installed my 2M Black Ortofon and my Nasotec headshell and gave it a test run in my system. The thing that was apparent instantly was the increase in both detail and sound stage. I've run the 2M Black for about 4 years and never heard it sound this nice. My takeaway from this is that there is a LOT to be had from your tonearm. I'll post technical info and pictures soon.
 
For the "numbers people" The effective length of the arm is 14.5 inches. Spindle center to pivot center of the arm I have set at 15-1/16" This gives me an alignment ark that is 2.5 degrees out at the first band of the record and 1 degree out on the inner band. Of course this changes depending on where the inner band is located from the spindle. I have it set this way to provide a closer to perfect tracking angle from center to inner band. As I said in a previous post, I did this strictly as an experiment but I'm extremely pleased with the results.
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Tres cool!

Where did you get the carbon fibre tube and in what dimensions? I've been toying around with a tonearm concept, though I am not sure if I want to modify my ATP-12T. :)
 
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