Is a longer tonearm better?
A longer tonearm is better at maintaining the right tracking angle for the needle as it tracks across the record. Theoretically, the longer the tonearm the longer it will maintain the correct angle. There’s a trade-off, though…a longer arm tube is less rigid and that also affects performance.
Does tonearm length matter?
A longer armtube means that inner and outer tracks sound more similar due to lowered tracking distortion, however shorter arms can sound faster and so choice boils down to a matter of preference – some people just don’t seem to miss speed of transients.
What is effective tonearm length?
The “effective length” is equal to the pivot to spindle distance plus the overhang.
What is considered a heavy tonearm?
* A tonearm whose effective mass is rated at 10 grams or below is considered low mass (e.g. early SME’s, Grace 747 etc.). A tonearm whose effective mass is rated between 11 and 25 grams is considered moderate mass (e.g. SME 309, IV, IV-Vi, V, Triplanar, Graham).
Is an S shaped tonearm better?
“S”-shaped tonearms, by virtue of their curved shape and their headshell being right in line with the tonearm, have equal mass to either side of the pivot point. That’s good. However, if you “straightened out” an S-shaped tonearm, it would be longer than a straight tonearm, and thus have greater mass.
How does a tonearm affect sound?
Tonearm Materials Just like the tonewoods used for a guitar creates a unique resonating sound, the materials used to create the parts of a record player will make or break the sound of the music.
What makes a good tonearm?
Having a tonearm that is the right amount of flexible and firm is paramount to a smooth audio performance. With so many different turntables on the market, from entry-level to luxury, some research may be required to determine the unit that will best suit your needs.
What is a tangential turntable?
Tangential-arm turntables have their tonearm (and thus the cartridge’s playback stylus) positioned at 90˚ to the record grooves, just like the cutting stylus was, so their tracking error is zero. Great.
Who made the first direct drive turntable?
Shuichi Obata
The first direct-drive turntable was invented by Shuichi Obata, an engineer at Matsushita (now Panasonic), based in Osaka, Japan. It eliminated belts, and instead employed a motor to directly drive a platter on which a vinyl record rests.
How important is the tonearm?
Just like the tonewoods used for a guitar creates a unique resonating sound, the materials used to create the parts of a record player will make or break the sound of the music. The higher the quality of the materials, the better the audio experience that you are creating will be, even without the use of amps.
What makes a high quality record player?
The essence of a good turntable is that it reads the record grooves accurately and reproduces the recorded music identical to its original sound without adding noise and distortion. To reproduce recorded music with high fidelity, a turntable needs to meet four essential criteria: Low vibration chassis and motor.
How do you match a tonearm to a cartridge?
Low, medium, and high mass. As a general rule, high compliance cartridges work best with low mass tonearms (medium always goes great with medium) and low compliance cartridges work best with high mass tonearms.
How do you measure the offset angle of a tonearm?
The offset angle of the tonearm, as seen in Fig. 1, is taken from an imaginary line drawn from the pivot center through the stylus tip and a line parallel to the cartridge body through the stylus tip.
What is tonearm overhang?
Overhang: This is a distance how much is diamond tip over the centre of the record from direction of the horizontal bearing of the tonearm. It is only a starting point of setting up tonearm & cartridge tangential geometry for pivoted tonearms. Optimal overhang does not mean that cartridge is properly set up in tonearm.
What is the best linear tracking turntable?
The two most famous linear-tracking turntables are the B&O Beogram 4000 [HFN Jun ’14] and the Technics SL-10, as reviewed here. Both were groundbreaking, state-of-the-art products of their eras and both began series that would eventually include a wide range of derived types.
What is a linear tracking tonearm?
Unlike conventional tonearms, these linear-tracking models do not swing across a record, swiveling on a pivot. Instead, the arm slowly crawls over the record in a straight radial line, inching its way from the outer grooves toward the center.
Is belt drive better than direct drive turntables?
Belt drive turntables, reportedly, produce better sound quality. Because a belt drive reduces vibration noise, a record player’s sound can be cleaner. Many record player owners, in fact, focus on motor noise reduction as a priority. The more a record player’s feedback noise is reduced, the clearer its noise is.