esoteric 70's tonearms, give us a history lesson

jeremyjustic

jeremyjustic

Analog
Hi guys, I have recently been completely obsessed with tonearms and in my search I have come across brands such as Fidelity research , Saec and Audiocraft. All three were completely unknown to me until recently so that got me thinking , what else is out there that I don't know about? what were the "hot" arms back in the 70's. what are the small,boutique, esoteric brands that may have slipped under the radar? how do the top offerings of yore compare to newer designs? Thanks guys for all of your insight and sharing your knowledge, all the best
 
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Two very different approaches to the same idea;

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Dynavector DV-505
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Here's a '70s unipivot tone arm that I just pulled out storage. I also have two Decca London cartridges Gold and the Maroon is mounted. Now i have to go find the vinyl source somewhere in storage also.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i163/miltons_stuff/JH-Tonearm.jpg

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i163/miltons_stuff/JH-Tonearm-Decca-London.jpg

http://www.needledoctor.com/London-Decca-Maroon-Phono-Cartridge?sc=2&category=368

http://www.needledoctor.com/London-Decca-Super-Gold-Cartridge?sc=2&category=368

Don
 
The 70's were the era of High compliance and very low mass tonearms...

You don't hear about them much now, because the top end cartridges now are mostly low compliance, and therefore the arms are very different higher mass and internally damped designs.

You need to decide in which direction you want to head with regards to cartridges, before you can look at what types of arms will suit.

Also some arms (like the dynavector 505 family) have specific turntable/plinth requirements - The DV505 is very HEAVY - and works well on solid plinth setups, but can be very problematic on sprung setups.

Also the JH arm shown, used fluid damping to stabilise the unipivot... Fluid, or magnetic damping is important and often overlooked...

You sort of need to narrow your field a little so you can see the wood for the trees...

bye for now

David
 
dlaloum said:
The 70's were the era of High compliance and very low mass tonearms...

You don't hear about them much now, because the top end cartridges now are mostly low compliance, and therefore the arms are very different higher mass and internally damped designs.

You need to decide in which direction you want to head with regards to cartridges, before you can look at what types of arms will suit.

Also some arms (like the dynavector 505 family) have specific turntable/plinth requirements - The DV505 is very HEAVY - and works well on solid plinth setups, but can be very problematic on sprung setups.

Also the JH arm shown, used fluid damping to stabilise the unipivot... Fluid, or magnetic damping is important and often overlooked...

You sort of need to narrow your field a little so you can see the wood for the trees...

bye for now

David
Click to expand...

you make valid points however I am not trying to "narrow the field" but rather learn as much as I can about vintage esoteirc high end tonearms. just looking for general information for the fun of it.
 
here are some more examples

Fidelity Research fr 54, I am currently lusting over this arm. I love the design!
DSC_5161.jpg


Micro Seiki ma 505
Micro_Seiki_MA-505LS_201.jpg


saec we 506
saecwe506.jpg


all photos were taken off the interweb, thanks to the people who originally posted them.
 
dlaloum said:
Also the JH arm shown, used fluid damping to stabilise the unipivot... Fluid, or magnetic damping is important and often overlooked...
Click to expand...

The JH uses a very viscous fluid for dampening. It’s too bad the unipivot didn’t use a compliant taut band without the stiction associated with the sliding mechanical contact pivot itself. In the ‘70s I attempted to built a tone arm that used frictionless/stiction free flexpivots http://www.flexpivots.com/ but failed to use a dampening fluid such as used on the JH. Digital came along and I abandoned the effort. I still think there is something missing with digital as comparative listening to vinyl using the JH and maroon Decca London cartridge leads me to believe.

Don
 
Mayware Formula 4
Grace G 707
Hadcock 228
Infinity Black Widow
Mission 774
Stax UA 7

Theres a few more. Do you have a different arm on that TD-160 yet? If not, you're slackin'.:D
 
Wow,... That Dynavector arm is a souped up version of some of the 50's arms, like the GE A1-500 and A1-501 as examples. Its much more high tech, but still bears resemblance to some of the predecessors.
The old guys had some solid ideas.
What I'm saying,... early 50's GE arm:
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There we many worth designs from:

Decca
Keith Monks
Grace
Ikeda
Saec
Dynavector
Micro Seiki
Infinity
ADC
Fidelity Research
Audiocraft

Many different paths to the same end.
 
Don Clement said:
The JH uses a very viscous fluid for dampening. It’s too bad the unipivot didn’t use a compliant taut band without the stiction associated with the sliding mechanical contact pivot itself. In the ‘70s I attempted to built a tone arm that used frictionless/stiction free flexpivots http://www.flexpivots.com/ but failed to use a dampening fluid such as used on the JH. Digital came along and I abandoned the effort. I still think there is something missing with digital as comparative listening to vinyl using the JH and maroon Decca London cartridge leads me to believe.

Don
Click to expand...

You would no doubt remember the Rolamite vertical arm bearing used in the H-K /RABCO linear tracking arm/tables of the 1970s as another novel frictionless approach.
http://www.rexresearch.com/wilkes/1wilkes.htm
 
Tho' late 1970s and another design intended for the then-popular low-mass/high compliance cartridge pick-ups, there was the STUDER-REVOX Linatrack linear tracking integrated turntable that used a small-ish very unusual and unique unique magnetically stabilized unipivot pick-up carrier assembly of short pivot span with very low mass, moment of inertia, and extremely low pivot friction/drag.
attachment.php
 
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Don't forget the:
SME 3009 series
Audio Technica AT1100/Signet AK50
Magnapan Unitrac 1 (I'm still looking for one of these!)
Sonic Formula 4
Regards,
Jim
 
hatrack71 said:
Mayware Formula 4
Grace G 707
Hadcock 228
Infinity Black Widow
Mission 774
Stax UA 7

Theres a few more. Do you have a different arm on that TD-160 yet? If not, you're slackin'.:D
Click to expand...

slacking indeed!:smoke:

I almost picked up one of those stax tonearms a while back, missed out at the last second. I also love the look of the black widow but it being such a low mass arm seems like it would be difficult to match a cartridge, well not difficult but limiting. thanks for the info!
 
rcspkramp said:
There we many worth designs from:

Decca
Keith Monks
Grace
Ikeda
Saec
Dynavector
Micro Seiki
Infinity
ADC
Fidelity Research
Audiocraft

Many different paths to the same end.
Click to expand...

this is what I am talking about! I had never seen the Keith monk arms, also I have seen the name Ikeda but dont think I know anything about them , anyone have any info on these? thanks for the info!

Pio1980 said:
Tho' late 1970s and another design intended for the then-popular low-mass/high compliance cartridge pick-ups, there was the STUDER-REVOX Linatrack linear tracking integrated turntable that used a small-ish very unusual and unique unique magnetically stabilized unipivot pick-up carrier assembly of short pivot span with very low mass, moment of inertia, and extremely low pivot friction/drag.
attachment.php
Click to expand...

I should have known you would chime in with an LT arm! hahahah

ehoove said:
Don't forget the:
SME 3009 series
Audio Technica AT1100/Signet AK50
Magnapan Unitrac 1 (I'm still looking for one of these!)
Sonic Formula 4
Regards,
Jim
Click to expand...

thanks Jim, love the look of the magnapan arm.

Don Clement said:
I owned a Marantz SLT12 back in the '70s. http://stereonomono.blogspot.com/2010/12/marantz-slt-12.html Loss of moving mass to the tone arm itself that included a complex curved involuate gear train. I still have the >12lb platter with single ball bearing assembly ala SOTA (only Marantz used a hardened ball instead of saphire.)

Don
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man I have never seen one of those marantz models, looks really strange. how did it sound? those have got to be rare nowadays
 
I owned the Keith Monks unipivot arm. Unfortunately it would be highly illegal to market these days. It had four miniature mercury baths for contact between the arm and the unipivot/support section. Highly toxic that. What's more, the contacts would become dirty fairly often requiring the user to clean them. It sounded great though.
 
The KM mercury contact unipivot arm was an interesting idea but a hardwired approach would have been sonically better IMO even tho it doesn't allow for just lifting the arm away from the pivot post for what-ever reason like the original.
 
jeremyjustic said:
man I have never seen one of those marantz models, looks really strange. how did it sound? those have got to be rare nowadays
Click to expand...

I obviously did not like the Marantz STL-12 tone arm as I cannibalized the unit for the excellent turntable platter. IMO the SLT tone arm had a large moving mass plus all the stiction of the bearings with rolling stiction of involute gear articulating mechanisms that allowed for straight line movement. The SLT-12 did have a really cool mechanism for setting the tone arm up/down and to the right tract of an LP. Pushing down on the large cylindrical knob raised the tone arm above the LP, releasing the knob lets the tone arm drop onto the LP. Rotating the same knob, after raising the tone arm by pushing down, positions the tone arm to the desired tract. The translucent rectangular Plexiglas back lit 33-1/3 ,45 rpm, on/ off controls were of the style of ‘60s IBM equipment such as an IBM keypunch machine. In retrospect I should have kept the SLT-12 intact as today it would be a museum piece or certainly a collector’s item.

Don
 
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