Analog Corner

Shortly after the July 2013 issue of Stereophile hit the newsstands, I received an e-mail from audio restoration expert Doug Pomeroy, who specializes in the digital preservation of disc pressing metal parts, acetates, and 78s . . . His and my opinions about digital sound couldn't be more divergent.

Though clearly built more for performance than for looks, the Thales TTT-Compact ($13,200), designed and built in Switzerland by Micha Huber, ranks among a handful of today's most elegant new turntables. Like the Spiral Groove SG 1.1 or the AMG Viella 12, the TTC-C, true to its name, is compact and self-contained, with its belt and built-in motor hidden under the platter.

That Huber was once a watchmaker is evident in every aspect of the densely packed TTT-Compact, which measures approximately 18" wide by 3.5" high by 12" deep. From the packaging and instructions to its muted, satiny finish, the TTC-Compact exudes sophistication of design and execution.

At the 2013 High End Show, in Munich, a tonearm designer displayed a pivoting tangential tracker. A nearly invisible length of monofilament wrapped around the arm's perimeter controlled the pivoting headshell of the box-girder–like arm.

It may very well have worked as promised, but was it practical? And with so many tiny moving parts, would it sound any good? I don't know—it was a silent display—and inquisitive attendees kept bumping the difficult-to-see monofilament, dislodging it from its track.

The odds weren't good that this contraption, however well intended, would ever get past the prototype stage, though I was going to look for it at the 2014 Munich show, in May. Sometimes, designers obsessed with one particular performance parameter lose sight of the forest for the trees.

The designer of ViV Lab's Rigid Float tonearm, Koichiro Akimoto, also had in mind an unusual design goal, based on his belief that the geometry of pivoted tonearms, as we know it, is wrong.