I'd trust a Lowbeats test using a Rega 9 or 10 as really, these decks are as 'characterless' (as in nothing added or taken away) as one could get for anywhere near that price. The solid fixed height nature of the Rega RB arms can be an issue with some pickups though, but my favourite Uk turntable brand has a collet mounting to adjust VTA and it works a treat. The almost equally maligned (in these quarters) SME IV and V were similarly criticised. The secret with the Rega arms is that they don't resonate much if at all in the current models and sections of the audiophile fraternity don't like it because these arms tend to show the cartridges up more as they really are. It makes me laugh to read all about all the pseudo scientific marketing and then see how many enthusiasts use an arm with the ubiquitous removable headshell which makes everything else small beer. The bad effect varies a lot between detail designs of the collet and whether it has 1 or 2 draw pins and is also sensitive to whether there is a washer and how tight it is. They did of course but not as much as you are implying, and the vast majority, even of inexpensive arms, did not make a huge actual difference to the cartridge output, which IMO is what counts in terms of real effect.Īnything with a resonance with an anti-node at or near the headshell did, of course, but since little genuine dynamic science seems to be applied at the design stage (as opposed to pseudo-scientific marketing BS) it is a question of luck rather than design IME.Īmusingly the worst arm feature I ever measured is the ubiquitous SME style removable headshell fixing. Or look at the more exotic tonearms from Funk FirmĬlick to expand.I used to do a lot of tests to see if shortcomings in arms and turntables made it as far as the cartridge output. This tonearm soaks up the resonances and doesn’t transmit them further
#Sat sme tonearm forum plus#
My Thorens TP92 has 8 layers of rolled aluminium with a coating inside the tube that reduces resonances, plus a resonace damping collar on the resonace point of the tube (measured and identified by laservibrometer) plus an underhung counterweight (this choice improves tracking) that is double de-coupled. This means that it can reflect more vibrations back to the cartridge which can affect the sound.īut it’s better than a tonearm that resonate together with the cartridge. Rega tonearms are known for their stiffness and rigidity. It’s not really practical to test cartridges in all tonearms that are available on the market, but the more reviews one reads of the same cartridge, the more one gets about how the cartridge sounds.ĭifferent tonearms handles resonances and tracking different from each other due to difference in construction and materials used. The thing with cartridges is that they have different sound in different tonearms. I like lowbeats too, but one should be aware of that - yes, they uses a RP9 with a Rega tonearm. Plus take into difference in design and features. And one gets better tonearms that handles unwanted resonances better and that tracks better.Īt a given price point, the difference are smaller between turntables costing similar money than between turntables with a bigger difference in price.Ībove 1 000 euro, all turntables are good - but they have different sonical character. Going higher up the scale, one gets better de-coupling and isolation leading to less distorsion and unwanted resonances. Plus they are all sensitive to acoustic feedback. The others are not so easy.īut budget turntables like Pro-Ject Debut, Teac TN3B, Thorens TD201 or 202, Rega RP1 or 2, Fluance and many many others, are quite similar in terms of wow and flutter. And how a tonearm tracks.Īnd how the turntable handles resonance and acoustic feedback. Then we have the factor of the tonearm, how the tonearm handles resonances that comes from the cartridge. The very same turntable will get different results in different labs. LP test discs can have wow and flutter in themselves due to the nature of analogue tape machines that records the tones, and the cutting head machines that cuts the records. Measuring turntables really is a can of worms.