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What is a low mass arm? I don't understand!

LAB3 said:
Why is the heaver arm (Pro) :scratch2: sorry if this sounds stupid. Trying to learn all this. Retired and interested in it now/again.:yes:
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Sorry, it's an old school thing. I put "professional" in reference to the tonearms used on old (but great) broadcast/studio turntables (i.e. EMT 928). The typical choice for such a turntable was a long (12") tonearm with a fairly high mass, mounting a low compliance cartridge that tracks at 3-4gms like the Denon 103 or the original Ortofon SPUs.
 
Love-Vinyl said:
As far as I can find out the Sony's Biotracer arm is considered on the low mass side while the Zero 100's is considered low-mid mass. Just for clarification though is the Sony PS-X7?

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The Sony PS-X7 arm is not a light arm. The pieces and parts might actually weigh little, but the arm reacts like an arm in the 20gr EM range. Might be due to its shortness. 205mm if memory serves me.
 
flavio81 said:
Sorry, it's an old school thing. I put "professional" in reference to the tonearms used on old (but great) broadcast/studio turntables (i.e. EMT 928). The typical choice for such a turntable was a long (12") tonearm with a fairly high mass, mounting a low compliance cartridge that tracks at 3-4gms like the Denon 103 or the original Ortofon SPUs.
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Thanks :thmbsp: I am "Old" and now I am "Getting Schooled" on the finer adjustments you can do to your TT. And learning how to match all of them with phono stage etc so they ALL match.It:music: startes and stops, it's the inbetween that gets expensive. And knowing where and what to purchase.
Who knew 30 years later I would be spending $$ on spinning vinyl again.
 
flavio81 said:
Well, it's just my opinion, but based on common/well regarded tonearms and also based on all the literature (leaflets, brochures) over time.

At the end it's just subjective ("low", "medium", "heavy"), but i would say that my classification is good enough.
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My point in asking was to find out which specs are correct. It seems that the numbers you state differ from other's. An example is post # 8 from David a couple of months back. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=240809

There doesn't seem to be a golden rule.
 
Duane said:
My point in asking was to find out which specs are correct. It seems that the numbers you state differ from other's. An example is post # 8 from David a couple of months back. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=240809

There doesn't seem to be a golden rule.
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As Flavio suggested that his range was subjective, it's pretty much the way I would rank arms as well. 9grs being on the high side of low mass, 10gr being on the low side of medium mass. About 5-6 grs in each range, with a grey area of 2grs or so at each end of the ranges.
 
marcmorin said:
As Flavio suggested that his range was subjective, it's pretty much the way I would rank arms as well. 9grs being on the high side of low mass, 10gr being on the low side of medium mass. About 5-6 grs in each range, with a grey area of 2grs or so at each end of the ranges.
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I was really glad he posted this and the others on this thread. I learned a lot
about my PL-518 and it's 9.5 "S" arm from this information. Looks like the Pickering XUV and the ADC RZL and XLM series are a good combo for it. Pop knew what he was doing back then when it was new.I saved all these links and info. Thanks to all.:thmbsp:
 
Duane said:
Yeah,the wrong link was attached. Here's the one I should have linked. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=451261
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Dlaloum:

Low Mass arms = less than 8g
Mid Mass arms = 11g to 20g
High Mass arms = greater than 25g

Yes I have left gray areas between the categories!

Note that true ultra low mass arms like the Revox Linatrack, Moerch and SME arms are all well below 6g
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Flavio:

3-6g: ultra low mass (SME 3009 III)
7-10g: low mass (SME 3009 II with headshell)
11-16g: mid mass (most popular tonearms nowadays)
16-25g: high mass (many 12 inch tonearms)
more than 25g: very high mass tonearm (professional tonearms)
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Sounds like we both agree for the most part.
 
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