Thoughts on the Souther arm
As a longtime Souther Triquartz owner with a love-hate relationship with the arm, I've found this discussion interesting. Here are my own thoughts, late as they are. Most of my mods are the result of a long talk and visit with Los Souther after he sold out to ClearAudio. The issues with mass are things that came to him after the sale.
1) I removed the cover, which bound up the wire. In its place I put a steel bar, essentially making the arm a quad-quartz, or more accurately, a quad-supporting tube.
2) I filled the ends and the cross beams with sand.
3) Well Tempered wire soldered to some Cardas tonearm cable works in place of the Souther original. I use the little plug that was intended for the original harness as the connection point. I haven't looked into the Incognito, but it sounds similar, without the solder connections.
4) I tried a ClearAudio base adaptor which allows the arm to rest there rather than the spindle. It was a disaster. Very difficult to adjust, for one thing. I suspect that the ClearAudio arms eliminated the adjustment problem. Lou was skeptical about the idea, believing the spindle support was more stable. From my brief experienced with the base adaptor, I agree.
5) One of the biggest problems with the Souther is dirty railings that can lead to dirty stainless steel bearings. I was not aware of this the first time around and was late to discovering the need for cleaning those quartz rods. I use 91% alcohol from CVS to do it. 99% lab alcohol would be better, but I don't like having that stuff around. I've had residue free contact cleaner recommended, but sprays are tough to use in this setting. I just bought some Audioquest Ultra Connect 2 and will try that occasionally. Be sure the cleaner touches only the part of the rail that comes into contact with the bearings. You don't want it running down to where the rail is attached to the body--it might soften the glue.
I have had dirty bearings. I cleaned them with alcohol. Good bye bearings. That's when I met Lou: he sold me new ones. But this is no joke. Any dirt at all on those bearings and you're sunk. You really need to keep those rails clean, especially in high dust environments, not to mention high humidity. Recently, I was having tracking issues (remember, I said love-hate--there has been plenty of the latter), and I had to take the bearings off and clean them in warm soapy water. (Use mild dish washing soap.) Problem solved. For now, anyway. A word, then, about cleaning stainless steel. What makes it stainless is its alloy properties and a thin coating. Harsh cleaning removes the coating. Alcohol qualifies as harsh.
6) One of the Souther's Achilles heels is the foam-like damping beneath the track assembly and the frame. In my arm that stuff recently disintegrated. I noticed it when I was removing the bearings. I was having a lot of tracking problems then that even cleaning the bearings didn't eliminate. By then I was running the track directly on the housing (I probably was before, given the condition of the damping.) Desperate, I stuck a small rubber washer on each end. The problem was eliminated completely. The arm hasn't tracked so well in years. I suspect the issue isn't damping so much as decoupling. I'm now experimenting with some damping material that Michael Percy sells because I find it hard to believe that the washers are the complete solution. We'll see.
7) I consider that damping noted in 6 a very bad design flaw--on a couple of levels. To begin with, of course, the damping disintegrates over time--something more permanent needs to be there. But worse than that. The track is held to the frame by two plastic screws that clamp the track and the damping to the assemply. The problem, damping aside, is that nowhere in the directions for setup are these screws mentioned. Not that I can see. Yet they're critical to adjusting the arm! You can perform all kinds of hijinks setting the level as per the instructions, but if those screws have moved with the disintegration of the damping or just over time, you could be missing a major cause of your difficulty. Should leveling prove difficult, pay attention to those screws.
8) I find Souther's "great little gauge" a pain. I use an inside caliper to set level, but you have to be careful lining it up and in not scratching the quartz. Gentle is the word. And slow.
Set up well, the Souther is a fine performer. I've long thought of dumping it, but my sense is whatever I gain, I may lose something I don't want to lose, so I've hesitated. Finally here is a link to a very interesting account of Souther and the development of the arm.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1266367593&openflup&17&4
scroll down to the longer post
