Turntable Reviews

Used to spend hours in the late 80's looking, adjusting then readjusting then tightening my cartridge on my Dennesen protractor only to go back and look at the cartridge from another angle and start all over again. Got so frustrated, I nearly gave up on vinyl. Fortunately, I did two things that cured my nervosa; I purchased an SME tonearm with its fixed mounting for cartridge and its sliding rail for overhang adjustment, voila overnight everything came into place. Secondly, purchased a Shure V15 MK V cartridge that came with this ingenious overhang slot gauge that further took away the guesswork of aligning the cartridge. Have three Shure V15's and still use them to this day. Have slept soundly since.

I think it might just be bad luck on your part Art, the DG recordings I own are very quiet unless, and it has happened, some previous owner's stylus was not up to par, but that is rare and have been very happy with the quality of the DG vinyl I have purchased. Not as good as Philips pressings but good enough.

So if the Jochum Bruckner 8th is one of your two favourites which is the other one? It must be the Furtwangler with the VPO from 1944 right? It has to be.

I wish they were done by all.

Many thanks Art for another interesting review, although more comment on the several audible advantages of tangential tracking would have been appreciated (see the review of the Thales AV arm by Michael Fremer d/d 31 Oct.2010).
Even though the Simplicity arm does track tangentially, the offset angle still requires compensation of the skating force, and this is achieved by two very small (non-adjustable) magnets integrated in the counterweight.
Frank Schroeder's tangential tracking arm is getting much favourable comment on the web. Any chance
of either you or Michael (Analog Planet) obtaining one for testing?

... SME Model 15A.
http://www.soundhifi.com/SME/images/sme-model-15-hifi-news-review.pdf

Hello Art
A longtime reader of Stereophile and of John Atkinson since HFN/RR days.
I am concerned about the structural integrity of the articulations at the headshell. We have been taught that any free-play or jitter in the turntable/arm/cartridge interface will create distortion by allowing the stylus to move of itself not driven by the modulations in the disc groove. This has always made sense to me. And to the generations of arm designers who have engineered increasingly large bearings with vanishingly small free-play, as applauded by Mr Fremer.
So with only your photo to guide me, it does appear the articulations at the headshell are small and poorly engineered and must allow free-play. Did you examine this aspect? Do you agree with the central issue?
An ongoing criticism of most parallel tracking arm set-ups is that they are a spider to catch a fly. The compromises involved are greater than those in a pivoted arm.
But see my avatar for what I have found to be a solution.
Keep on writing and I will keep on reading!!
Kind regards
Michael Quinlan