Klaudio Tangential Tonearm

[Ron Resnick]

Peter Cheon, founder of Klaudio, showed me in Seattle the latest version of his very interesting tangential tonearm. It looked complex and it appeared to be exquisitely machined.

I am told that Peter spent a great deal of time and resources developing and perfecting this tonearm. Peter told me directly that his company machines all of the parts to build the tonearm! That is great because he does not have to worry about outside vendor quality control.

This tonearm project clearly is a labor of love and passion for Peter. It looks like a mechanical work of art!

(I cannot help but wonder how it compares sonically to the Schroeder LT tonearm.)



https://klaudio.com/category&path=62

 

[awsmone]

This does look interesting as the dual arm arrangement has been tried before, but some engineering effort has gone into this
The laser projector looks most intriguing

It’s weird how this seems so hard to implement in playback in an engineering sense

Yet cutting lathes have had this for a long time, but they are driven by power amplifiers, here we are going in the opposite direction

I wonder if anyone has heard this arm

Issues of rigidity, and chatter of such a complicated system, make the engineering trade offs of non perfect alignment questionable

 

[DaveyF]

I wonder if anyone has heard this arm

Issues of rigidity, and chatter of such a complicated system, make the engineering trade offs of non perfect alignment questionable

Looking at that design that is also the first thing that came to my mind.

 

[jtinn]

This does look interesting as the dual arm arrangement has been tried before, but some engineering effort has gone into this
The laser projector looks most intriguing

It’s weird how this seems so hard to implement in playback in an engineering sense

Yet cutting lathes have had this for a long time, but they are driven by power amplifiers, here we are going in the opposite direction

I wonder if anyone has heard this arm

Issues of rigidity, and chatter of such a complicated system, make the engineering trade offs of non perfect alignment questionable

All points seem valid, until you listen to the arm. It really sounds terrific!

 

[bonzo75]

Anyone tried the Reed 5T tangential arm?

 

[GMKF]

boy that's an impressive feat of engineering...
and boy do I want one...

 

[GaryProtein]

The KL Audio arm reminds me of the Garrard Zero 100, circa 1970.


NOTE: I DIDN'T say it was just like the Zero 100, only that it was reminiscent of it.

 

[awsmone]

That’s great if they have succeeded

I love the idea of a good linear tracker

 

[Pb Blimp]

I looked at a couple of the tangential type tonearm designs (this and Thales) before deciding on the TA9000 and I just could not get comfortable with the long term prospect of the groove continually applying any extra load to the stylus. Even if perfected at inception, too many factors could negatively impact performance over time as the arms interfaces wear ever so slightly and friction coefficients change. It seams like you are inviting load variations against the stylus that will do more harm than the benefits of tracking error improvement relative to a well designed, traditional 12 inch arm. Of course I have nothing to back this up other than fear and physics.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Two more photos of the KL Audio tonearm:

 

[DaveyF]

There are so many areas for loss of rigidity and chatter in that design, it basically amazes me that it sounds good at all. Having not heard it I cannot comment on the sound, but it is almost the antithesis in design of what should sound good.( By the looks of it).

 

[rockitman]

Coolest looking arm ever and the price looks right !!!

 

[rockitman]

Two more photos of the KL Audio tonearm:


View attachment 39851



View attachment 39852

Metal parts porn. Is it a standard SME/Ortofon bayonet type headshell Mount ?

 

[Ron Resnick]

Coolest looking arm ever and the price looks right !!!

I, too, think it is the coolest looking arm I have ever seen! It looked to me like standard SME/Ortofon bayonet type mount.

 

[awsmone]

I agree there, Christian! I, too, think it is the coolest looking arm I have ever seen!

+1

Great photos, and looks like serious engineering

Having said that, I will be amazed if it sounds better than say a Kuzma 4 point, as it seems the antithesis of structural rigidity and low vibrational modes, but I haven’t heard it, time will tell once it’s in the field

A comparison with other reference arms would be most illuminating such as 3012r and 4 point, and FR66

What is it’s mass, and what type of cartridges are suitable?
did I read correctly u need to use bespoke headshells, it’s not an sme style mount ?

 

[spiritofmusic]

My God, what a beast!

 

[PeterA]

All points seem valid, until you listen to the arm. It really sounds terrific!

Jonathan, Ron's photos make it look like it is mounted on one of your NVS turntables. Are you a dealer? How does it compare to the sound of a Durand arm?

 

[Ron Resnick]

Peter, just so you know, those are not my photos. I posted studio photos of the tonearm I received via e-mail from Klaudio.

 

[PeterA]

Peter, just so you know, those are not my photos. I posted studio photos of the tonearm I received via e-mail from Klaudio.

Yes, I was lazy. I should have written "the photos that Ron posted." I still think they seem to show the arm mounted on an NVS. Perhaps Jtinn is a dealer.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Yes, I was lazy. I should have written "the photos that Ron posted." I still think they seem to show the arm mounted on an NVS. Perhaps Jtinn is a dealer.

You were not lazy. I just did not want inadvertently to imply that I had taken the photos.

The tonearm is indeed mounted on a Wave Kinetics NVS Reference turntable.