Tonearm Reviews

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Tonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Acoustic Signature Triple X turntable & TA-1000 tonearm
Art Dudley  |  Sep 04, 2015  | 
In a bizarre but happy turn of events, recent consumer trends have given even the most socially awkward audiophile something to talk about at cocktail parties and family gatherings at which normal people predominate: the PonoPlayer and vinyl. These are hot topics; each is among the best-sounding music sources available, and both offer hope for our hobby, if not for music lovers in general. But vinyl has the advantage of appealing to a much wider range of budgets. LPs can be had from anywhere to "We'll pay you to haul these away" to "Your loan officer is on line one." Likewise, vinyl playback hardware is available in virtually every price range, from a second-hand Dual 1229 ($50 and up) to the highly praised Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn ($200,000 and down).
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Tonearm Reviews
Airtangent tonearm
Arnis Balgalvis  |  Feb 04, 1995  |  First Published: Feb 04, 1989  | 
Tonearms, like Rodney Dangerfield, never get no respect. When was the last time you heard someone actually argue the merits of a tonearm? Right, not recently. "Hey, I just got that new Gizmo tonearm!" "Oh yeah? What cartridge are you using?" People pick out the cartridge for praise and consideration time after time, while the tonearm gets taken for granted.
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Tonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
AMG Viella Forte turntable and 12JT tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 14, 2020  | 
German engineering acumen and machining excellence—acknowledged and admired worldwide—are nowhere to be seen on AMG's flagship Viella Forte turntable and new 12JT tonearm. That's because, while what's on the surface is cosmetically and mechanically well-turned, the design features and precision engineering that set AMG's turntables and tonearms apart are inside and hidden from view.
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Analog CornerAudacious AudioTonearm Reviews
Analog Corner #239: Swedish Analog Technologies tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 09, 2015  | 
Late in the fall of 1982, Los Angeles turned ugly for me. I'd finished my work on Tron and despite the Academy Award nomination for Best Sound (which went to the mixing team, not the sound supervisor), it was obvious that nothing else was coming my way anytime soon. To earn a living, I had to reinvent myself.

So there I was in Las Vegas, at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show, schlepping heavy bags filled with press kits, each containing an audio cassette of a dozen radio commercials for a car-stereo store that I'd voiced and produced, along with a résumé-bio and endorsements from clients.

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Analog CornerAudacious AudioTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #240: Sperling-Audio L-1 turntable and TA-1 tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 02, 2024  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2015  | 
Photo: Echopark

With its swept-wing shape and platter-forward design, Sperling-Audio's L-1 turntable ($35,950, without tonearm) stands out in a crowd. This high-mass design from Germany is the result of a collaboration between Ansgar Sperling and Michael Bönninghoff, two fiftysomething engineers who began working together in recording studio construction.

Both also bring to the L-1's design and construction years of experience in signal processing. For years, Bönninghoff was the chief developer at Brauner microphones, and today is the technical director of the German pro-audio company S.E.A. Sperling worked in radio and signal processing, and has a strong interest in tubed electronics.

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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #243: TechDAS Air Force Two turntable, Graham Phantom Elite tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 08, 2024  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2015  | 
How big is the performance gap between TechDAS's new Air Force Two ($52,000) and original Air Force One ($105,000) turntables? How do you halve the price without also sacrificing the build quality and features of the flagship model that defines the brand? Even $52,000 is more than most people pay for an automobile, not to mention a turntable. Still, TechDAS's assertion on their website that the price of their new model price is "reasonably improved" over the old strikes me as an understatement.
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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #245: SME Model 15 turntable, SME 309 SPD tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  May 06, 2024  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2016  | 
In the April 2000 issue of Stereophile, I reviewed SME's Model 10, which was an attempt by that storied company to produce an "affordable" turntable. I described the Model 10's $5500 turntable-only price—about $7600 in today's dollars—as "stiff." (At the time, the Model 10 cost $5995 with SME's M10 arm, or $8250 with their IV.Vi arm.) But 16 years later, the same Model 10 costs only $5000 ($7000 with the more recent Model 10 arm, which is superior to the M10).
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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #248: Mørch DP-8, Reed 3P tonearms, TechDAS Air Force One turntable
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 05, 2024  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2016  | 
"HOW MEASUREMENT FAILS DOCTORS AND TEACHERS" was the headline of a story in a recent issue of the New York Times's "Sunday Review" section (formerly called "News of the Week in Review," now rendered obsolete by the 24/7 news cycle created by and for the terminally self-absorbed). The writer, Robert M. Wachter, a professor and interim chairman of UC San Francisco's department of medicine and author of the book The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age, said that healthcare and education "have become increasingly subjected to metrics and measurements," and that the focus on them has "gone too far."

To me, that headline screamed "Audio!" And the book that needs to be written is The Digital Recording Revolution: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Audio's Computer Age.

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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #256: Acoustic Signature Ascona Mk.2 turntable, TA-9000 tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 14, 2023  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2016  | 
I recently posted to AnalogPlanet.com's YouTube channel a video that compares VPI's Prime turntable and JMW 3D-printed tonearm ($3995) with Continuum Audio Labs' Caliburn turntable (ca $150,000 with arm and stand, discontinued) fitted with the Swedish Analog Technologies arm ($28,000). Both played "Braziljah," a snazzy track from the New Zion Trio's latest album, Sunshine Seas (LP, RareNoise RNR065LP), featuring guest Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista.

The Prime was fitted with a Lyra Helikon SL cartridge (ca $2500, discontinued), driving a reasonably priced phono preamplifier: the Audio Alchemy PPA-1 ($1795, currently under review for AnalogPlanet). Accompanying the Continuum Caliburn and SAT arm were Audio-Technica's AT-ART1000 cartridge ($5000), and Ypsilon's MC-16L step-up transformer ($6200) and VPS-100 Silver phono preamplifier ($65,000)—total cost, more than I paid for my first house, in 1992.

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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #259: Audio Union Döhmann Helix 1 turntable and Schröder CB tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 10, 2023  |  First Published: Mar 10, 2017  | 
The ability to fine-tune a vinyl playback system is part of what makes it possible to combine an archaic technology with modern thinking and materials to create musical magic, and take listeners to new heights of ecstatic musical pleasure. It's why so many young people are tuning in to vinyl, and helps explain why just today, as I write this, it was announced in the UK that, for the first time, revenues from sales of vinyl exceeded those from downloads.
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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #269: TechDAS Air Force III turntable and Graham Engineering Phantom III tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  May 10, 2022  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2018  | 
It was great fun having our editorial coordinator, Jana Dagdagan, shoot a video profile of me in my listening room. As I write this, it's had more than 88,000 views. While the ratio of thumbs up to thumbs down has remained consistently around 10:1, some of the negative comments, particularly about our industry and about this magazine, do enrage me.
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Analog CornerPowerline Accessory ReviewsTonearm Reviews
Analog Corner #274: SMc Audio AC Nexus power conditioner, Kuzma 4Point 9 tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 07, 2021  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2018  | 
Why am I once again falling down the rabbit hole of alternating current? A while back, I committed to listening to SMc Audio's AC Nexus power conditioner, designed by SMc founder Steve McCormack and distributed by dealer Hi Fi One.
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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #275: Bergmann Audio Galder turntable & Odin tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 09, 2021  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2018  | 
Bergmann Audio (footnote 1) launched its first turntable—the Sindre, which featured an integrated tonearm—in 2008. The Sindre's acrylic platter and tangential-tracking tonearm both floated on air bearings; it had an outboard motor controller, a separate air pump for the air bearings, and cost $21,000.
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Analog CornerPhono Cartridge ReviewsTonearm Reviews
Analog Corner #278: Swedish Analog Technologies LM-09 tonearm; DS Audio Master1 optical cartridge
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 09, 2021  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2018  | 
Despite one website's recent claim that "Vinyl's Revival Is Already Fading," Nielsen SoundScan recently announced that vinyl sales for the first half of 2018 were up 19.2% over 2017, led by Jack White's Boarding House Reach, with 37,000 copies sold so far (and we know that N/S misses a great deal of the action). While on the West Coast looking for business, a friend of mine who's about to open a major vinyl-pressing plant on the East Coast was told by everyone that they're experiencing "double-digit vinyl growth." No one was seeing a slowdown ahead.
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Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Analog Corner #279: Technics SL-1000R turntable, Swedish Analog Technologies CF1-09 tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 03, 2021  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2018  | 
Technics' sudden decision, in October 2010, to stop making its iconic SL-1200 direct-drive turntable, then in its MK6 iteration, took vinyl fans by surprise. At the time, although sales of vinyl and turntables for home use were surging, their use in clubs was falling as DJs moved to the digits. According to Technics (a division of Panasonic), production of the SL-1200 was stopped not because professional sales dropped, but because the factory tooling for manufacturing them had worn out, and retooling wasn't cost-effective.
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