Gramophone Dreams

To me, the original Technics SL-1200 tonearm was the "stretchy elastic" that sabotaged the stylus's efforts at "measuring" the groove. At its price—as part of a reasonably priced player—the stock Technics arm is very good, but not even close to the upmarket Technics EPA-100 arm it was modeled on. It does liveliness well, but mostly when partnered with DJ cartridges that overstate dynamics; with non-DJ, audiophile-approved Shure cartridges such as the V-15 Type III or V-15 Type V, it sounds kind of sleepy and lifeless. I attribute the stock arm's dullness to wiring, material construction, and bearing quality. Often, the stock 1200 arm let me hear what I call "groove noise"—a kind of low-level, buzzy, chattering sound that usually (on better arms) goes away when I get the SRA precisely dialed in. The SL-1200's stock arm doesn't steer low-compliance cartridges (eg, the Denon DL-103) as well as it should, and it never seems able to properly position the rock in the slot, or keep it there—especially with exotic line-contact stylus profiles at lower vertical tracking forces (VTFs).

Abis SA-1.2 tonearm
The new Abis SA-1.2 tonearm ($1775), made in Japan, appears to be an extrapolation from and refinement of Dynavector's classic DV-505 and DV-707 arms. The Abis folks have taken away all the more questionable features of the DV-707, such as the eddy-current damper and the movable sub-arm, and boiled it down to an extremely effective high-mass design. Unlike most other tonearms, which have a continuous armtube, the Abis SA-1.2's arm wand comprises several separate milled-aluminum pieces, in a design intended to reduce and disperse arm resonances. The SA-1.2's wide cross section adds rigidity, and that rigidity may even reduce colorations with mono cartridges.

I was told that the SA-1.2 had been engineered especially for use with classic low-compliance cartridges like the Ortofon SPUs, the EMTs, the Neumann DSTs, the Denon DL-103 and DL-102, and—surprise!—the variable-reluctance G.E. VR, VR II, and RPX-046 from the 1960s. This is the kind of tonearm I've always wished for. I didn't know about the Abis until I read Art Dudley's review of it in his March 2014 Listening" column and learned that the Japanese export company Sibatech had commissioned it. Sibatech's president, M. Shibazaki, is an old and beloved friend from my days as the American distributor of Audio Note Japan (now Kondo).

A 9.4" tonearm with high effective mass is a rare bird, and it immediately grabbed my attention. Unlike most of my audio peers, I prefer 9" (approximately) tonearms with all of my cartridges. I believe that, across the board, 9" arms reproduce the full dynamic life of music recorded on vinyl better than do 12" arms. Theoretically, a longer arm reduces tracing distortion, but using a longer arm just to add mass for a low-compliance cartridge seems like a poor audiophile decision.

When I contacted Abis's American importer, Phillip Holmes, aka Mockingbird Distribution, we became instant friends. We now constantly engage in mad debates about turntables, cartridges, and tonearms. (It was Holmes who turned me on to the shocking virtues of Shure "wide-body" cartridges like the M-35 X and the V-15 Type III.)

I have used the 755gm SA-1.2 on my Thorens TD 124 for almost a year now. During that time, it allowed my Zu Denon DL-103, Shure M-35 X, and Ortofon CG 25 Di cartridges to sound more refined and elegant. It replaced dynamic overstatement with dramatic understatement. It showed me that each of these cartridges is more sophisticated than I had imagined. It did this, I presume, by improving tracking and keeping the stylus in its proper place in the groove (think bias, azimuth, SRA). The Abis arm seemed to drag every stylus through the groove in a more easy-sliding, balanced, and continuous fashion, thereby reducing groove noise and grain, and excavating new heaps of micro-information. It turned the Denon DL-103 from a highly enjoyable but slightly brusque and generalized cartridge into a slick, smirking sophisticate: "Hello, my name is Bond—James Bond."

Unlike the SME M2-9, the Abis SA-1.2 required almost no cutting or drilling of the SL-1200's underside. The completed installation gave me a fully made-in-Japan, Zen temple idol—which immediately elevated my status among the Smoky Basement monks. I used it first with the Shure M-35 X cartridge. This combination of arm, 'table, and cartridge is surely wayward—I know that. Nevertheless, I have an open mind, and somehow it was on my path to try this.

I played some 7" 45rpm singles: the Kinks' "A Well Respected Man" (Reprise 0402), the Rolling Stones' "As Tears Go By" (London 45 LON 9008), Ace Cannon's "Alley Cat" (Hi 45-2148). Each sounded solid, quiet, and authentically toned in a way that reminded me of the Miyajima cartridges I wish for but can't afford to keep. "Alley Cat" caused me to walk back and forth, bobbing my head in a very silly way. Solo piano was joyously clangy and honky-tonk. Mick Jagger sounded extremely young in "As Tears Go By." Why? Simply because the air between him and the microphone had become more clear. While playing the Kinks, I decided to get more wayward, and called German Jasmine (the garden nymph) to invite her over to hear more records her father liked. Sadly, she couldn't come. She was spending the night with her boyfriend.

Jasmine Turtle
Then I remembered my other sexy Jasmine: the made-in-China Jasmine Audio Turtle moving-coil cartridge with the Fritz Geiger FG2 line-contact stylus and the most beautiful body—of blue and white porcelain—I have ever laid eyes on ($799). The Turtle was on my workbench, mounted in an Abis SA-1.2 headshell and ready to play; all I had to do was to swap-in that headshell and set the VTF. In less than 15 minutes I'd installed the Turtle, lit some temple incense, and was traveling back in time to A Bell Ringing in the Empty Sky—an album of traditional music played by Goro Yamaguchi on the shakuhachi, a Japanese wooden flute (LP, Nonesuch H-72025). I never needed a full orchestra or a pipe organ in a cathedral to recognize the virtues of the Jasmine Turtle. Even before it was broken in—which took at least 150 hours—it revealed a very appealing precision. The sound of Yamaguchi's bamboo flute (of Chinese origin) felt to me as if it was expressing the whole of timeless nature. Its energy projected tangibly throughout my small room.

The Geiger stylus is very persnickety to set up, but I persisted in trying. I knew that if I got it right, it would recover massive information without smearing or generalizing. During this struggle, the Turtle sounded mostly bright, hard, and occasionally downright annoying. Mike Trei said he could hear the porcelain body. I thought I could, too. Laughing, we described what we heard as "the teacup coloration." I would move the tonearm pillar, say, 0.5mm, and it would switch from bright and brittle to fuzzy and grungy. I felt incompetent. I think the main causes of my difficulties were character flaws and my lack of a USB microscope. Then, one day, unexpectedly, the little China-blue beauty came together and settled down, like a good dog after a long walk: peace, quiet, and pure LSD detail. The Technics SL-1200 front end was suddenly making big, pristine, hyperclear, supersaturated images, and a soundstage that felt like the Matrix revealed. I had definitely discovered something.

Ever since the line-contact Geiger and Shibata styli appeared on the scene, I have been in awe of the amount of high-frequency information these boat-rudder diamonds can recover: They steer me deep and wide into the beauty of my black grooves. With its Geiger FG2 profile, the Jasmine Turtle sounds anything but slow, and it can carve out a recording venue better than any cartridge I've owned. Yamaguchi's shakuhachi was tangibly present: I could feel the room he was playing in, and my mind was far away, in the Floating World. I had found a new Jasmine to smile about.

At 14.5gm, the Jasmine Turtle is heavy, and it needed a heavier-than-standard counterweight with every tonearm I tried; fortunately, the Abis comes with a perfect auxiliary weight that attaches snugly to the rear of the armtube, behind the bearings. The Turtle's stylus is at the end of an aluminum cantilever, and the cartridge has an internal resistance of 24 ohms and outputs 0.6mV at 5cm/s. Did I mention that it reproduces hyperdetail without sounding etched or unnatural? I love the Denon DL-103's body, pace, tone, and energy—it can pump music into a room with the best rock-draggers of all times. Unfortunately, I'm often bothered by what I perceive to be its conical-stylus generalizations of minute distinctions. The Jasmine Turtle is my newly discovered, highly effective antidote: It presented me with all the information I'd been missing.

You see, I prefer extremely tiny bubbles in my champagne, and that is what the Jasmine Turtle served me. At $699, it delivered a giant portion of what those cartridges I can't afford might give me. I'm very happy I found what I was looking for. German Jasmine said that "the blue and white teacup" made her want to dance, make love, and "smoke i di ganja all night long."