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Flat tonearm?

Cogito

Cogito

Well-Known Member
Does anyone recall a rather unique turntable that came with a flat tonearm. From the early eighties or so? I seem to remember that it was about as thick as a circuitboard and instead of wires in the arm, the conductors were etched onto the arm.

It just came to my mind, that's all.
 
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Nad 5120

Here is picture of the arm. Rated a poor table over all from what I read.
 

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I don't believe it was a NAD table. I did find some reference to a company called Microgroove who made/makes a flat plastic tonearm.
 
It was an NAD that was sourced from Czechoslovakia. The arm was, in fact, a circuit board, which was supposed to have high internal damping and was also damped -- it had an adjustment to control the damping and Vinyl Engine has NAD's very interesting chart of suggested amounts of damping for many cartridges. It got good reviews with the supplied cartridge, but apparently didn't do well with others, and soon the arm was replaced by a tubular one.
The table was equally interesting -- I think it had a flat spring suspension (like B&O) and the platter was a sheet steel pressing with a massive rubber cladding.
 
Nat is on the ball.

Most people thought it can’t work so it didn’t sell. It was their loss. I have had it for quite a few years and just got a new belt for it. From 1984: the $200 NAD 5120 turntable has a “floppy tonearm”, a name it is cursed with, because the arm is a flexible printed circuit board. The tonearm wires are circuit traces. Instead of damping resonance like a traditional arm, it fights fire with fire by sending a reversed wave to neutralize using a combination of damping liquid, a sprung-weight, and the arm that is flexible at rest. It is creative and works. Both floppy and traditional arms could be bought for $30 each. I have both.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=nad 5120&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

You’ll go dizzy with the pictures and information here:
http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23982
 
It seems like these days you could make the arm out of carbon fiber and it would be as light or lighter than than the printed circuit board material (fiberglass ??) and several orders of magnitude stiffer.
 
TobascoKid said:
Nat is on the ball.

Most people thought it can’t work so it didn’t sell. It was their loss. I have had it for quite a few years and just got a new belt for it. From 1984: the $200 NAD 5120 turntable has a “floppy tonearm”, a name it is cursed with, because the arm is a flexible printed circuit board. The tonearm wires are circuit traces. Instead of damping resonance like a traditional arm, it fights fire with fire by sending a reversed wave to neutralize using a combination of damping liquid, a sprung-weight, and the arm that is flexible at rest. It is creative and works. Both floppy and traditional arms could be bought for $30 each. I have both.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=nad 5120&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

You’ll go dizzy with the pictures and information here:
http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23982
Click to expand...


Yup, I guess that is it. One of the pics shows a wooden based version. Thanks for the education guys!
 
Actually the Z100 arm is an excellent answer to a real problem and question. The limitation of the design was related to trying to bring it in at a price point and being at a time when Garrard was not at its best. I truly believe with the state of the technology today the design could be the basis for what could be the finest tonearm possible.
 
A pivoting head shell, as the Zero 100 has, introduces two vibration points very near the stylus, and a third at the base. No way to make them vibration free. If the problem addressed was that important than all decent arms would be linear.
 
Actually some of the best arms made were linear trackers. The cost is far more than a pivotal arm and why not in popular use.
 
Oh ack -- can we keep this thread about the NAD arm, not yet another thread taken over by the linear/pivoted issue?
I say this as a participant in the l/p issue threads -- its an interesting topic, but not the topic of this thread.
 
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