World Debut: Vertere Reference Tonearm

[garylkoh]

These are the first pictures ever released of the new $35,000 Vertere Reference Tonearm. WBF gets a world's first. Here it is mounted on the fabulous TechDAS Air Force One.



I don't know if it's the first, neither does the designer as we have not seen every tonearm in history, but it's got a couple of unique features. First, it has different length vertically and horizontally, and hence effective mass in the horizontal plane is different from the effective mass vertically. Secondly, it doesn't use ball bearings/ball-races in the major pivot. It uses a leaf bearing.

 

[Steve williams]

Wow Gary a $35K tone arm

Have you heard it


Where is made

Will you have yours for CES

 

[ack]

and what's a leaf bearing?

 

[microstrip]

and what's a leaf bearing?

I do not know, but it must be expensive and sound good!

 

[Steve williams]

and what's a leaf bearing?

perhaps "gold" leaf

 

[ack]

perhaps "gold" leaf

hmmm, what else would justify $35K for aluminum and steel? Tough crowd we are...

 

[FrantzM]

hmmm, what else would justify $35K for aluminum and steel? Tough crowd we are...

Hi

Where will this stop? Really? Where? Then again $35,000 for a tonearm is not that much if you consider that there is a TT out there that would cost $650,000
Where does it end? Do we really think this can go on for a long time? Do we really? Of course everybody will say that it sounds good ... Better than all the other arms ... Progress? new Paradigm? I will stop there terms that I usually don;t use are the only ones that keep on coming to mind .. Out but lurking.

 

[ack]

We should wait it out and see first what technology is exactly behind this arm. But in general, you know it's not going to end.

 

[FrantzM]

We should wait it out and see first what technology is exactly behind this arm. But in general, you know it's not going to end.

Truly Ack It won't end. What technology can be behind a pivoting arm? I mean how many more ways? What is ending slowly is truly innovative products that truly advance the state of music reproduction, The end of truly innovative products that help us enjoy more music rather than pulling more money out of our pockets. We placidly cough more and more money meanwhile...

Then again in a world of speaker Cables for $50,000 why not?

 

[microstrip]

(...) Where does it end? Do we really think this can go on for a long time? Do we really? (...)

Frantz,

We survived the Mayan calendar end. Why should not we survive a $35.0000 tonearm?
Besides there is still hope - maybe that the Graham Engineering Phantom II Supreme 12" Tonearm $6,000 will sound better!

 

[ack]

Then again in a world of speaker Cables for $50,000 why not?

hahaha I knew someone would say that, and I was carefully avoiding it... no argument from me here, you know how vocal I am exactly about that.

 

[microstrip]

We should wait it out and see first what technology is exactly behind this arm.(...)

Ack,

Do you know the Vertere Etos is a well known sentence of the French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint Exupery "Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away"? It seems we should not ask only what is the technology, but what did he take away from a tonearm that was disturbing our perception of music. I will wait for Gary and others opinions - it is one of the reasons I read WBF.

 

[ack]

Just curious... did you pick that up from http://www.vertereacoustics.com by any chance?

 

[Dimfer]

saw this at 4am and I thought I was still dreaming when I read the price... one thing came to mind - it probably weight more or used more material than a Patek Philippe super-complication

 

[DaveyF]

Regarding the price of this arm; it would seem clear that someone figured out that there are a few people who will happily pay $35K for this product. I would love to know how they did that ( came up with $35K) vs. a number that, shall we say, is substantially higher...like $350K or more. I presume $35K is palatable to this manufacturer's known customer base and $350K is not. ( or maybe they do have a market for a $350K arm....just not willing to take the chance to see, LOL)

 

[rockitman]

I think I would rather have a Graham for a fraction of the price. Why don't these tonearm manufacturer's get with the program and incorporate a VTA bubble level like Graham ? Without a level, your VTA is never spot on record after record....imho.

 

[MasterChief]

Can't we have this boring price discussion in another thread and keep this thread to discuss about the Vertere tonearm?

 

[microstrip]

Just curious... did you pick that up from http://www.vertereacoustics.com by any chance?

Surely. Should we consider that my Google sounds as good as yours?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

and what's a leaf bearing?

they had leaf springs on old cars.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf_spring

i would assume there is some sort of pivot point and a hanging mass to spring off it.

 

[audioarcher]

Gary, What is the effective length and mass? Looks like the azimuth may be adjustable where the arm tube meets the base. Is that the case? From your pictures I can't tell exactly how VTA is adjusted. I assume it's not on the fly?