I have always wondered this too! I totally respect the desire for easy cartridge change, but I cannot imagine how the detachable headshell is an advantage structurally or from the point of view of adding another wire junction.
If the 3012R had a fixed headshell version, that is the one I would prefer.
Since almost everyone, if not literally everyone, purchasing an AS-2000 is also asking David to install a 3012R we are going to have the opportunity for several members to report comparisons between the 3012R and current production tonearms.
I am considering a second tonearm (Schroder LT or Durand Tosca) myself.
There are so many "experts" in the world of 'audio' that the unwashed 'punters' can pick and choose which 'expert' to believe....(almost none of whom has any scientific proof to offer).
40 years ago, I started by using a Technics tonearm with detachable headshell but under pressure from the High-End Hi-Fi community (journalists)....I quickly changed to a fixed headshell Hadcock GH-228 and for the next 30 years I eschewed removable headshells.
10 years ago I re-entered the detachable headshell tonearm world and have owned nearly twenty different models of both fixed and removable headshell arms.
I have
never, in that time, heard a detachable headshell tonearm sound inferior to a fixed shell because of it....
In fact....nearly all the fixed-shell tonearms I owned, have been out-performed by the removable-headshell ones until only one of my 6 tonearms has a non-removable shell (the Copperhead).
The 'expert' purist brigade once again makes its point by entering a world in which it has little expertise.....Structural Mechanics.
It posits the proposal that a 'mechanical joint' cannot be as rigid as a fixed (or no joint).....
In engineering, there are several ways of joining both alike and non-alike materials to form what is called a 'Moment Connection'.
This is a connection which essentially allows all forces (bending, shear) to be transferred without any movement or losses. In steel construction (to keep the example simple)...this can be achieved by riveting, high-tensile bolts or welding.
The bayonet and tightening-collar connection for a typical removable-headshell, effectively offers a high-quality Moment Connection.
Some tonearm manufacturers (those with real engineering credentials like Fidelity Research) actually advise that the ubiquitous rubber gasket (which accompanies every headshell) be removed to prevent any compliant coupling between arm and shell.
We are then left with the apparent 'weakness' of an additional 'electrical' connection between the headshell and arm....
This is beyond my expertise so I have essentially 'swallowed' this weakness and believed my ears
Imagine my surprise and delight recently, to find this posting by John Elison on Vinyl Asylum.....
The signal loss through a continuous strand of 33-gauge wire with connectors on each end is more than double the signal loss through one foot of 33-gauge wire and 3-feet of 26-gauge interconnect wire with a total of 6-connectors. This is very easy to determine by simply measuring the resistance of a continuous length of 33-gauge wire that is 4-feet in length against the minuscule resistance of 6 gold plated connectors added to the combined tonearm wire and interconnect wire. The maximum possible resistance of a single gold-plated connector is 0.01-ohm whereas the resistance of 4-feet of 33-gauge wire is 1.0436-ohms. The resistance of 1-foot of 33-gauge wire plus 3-feet of heavier 26-gauge interconnect wire and 6 gold plated connectors is 0.2609 + 0.12243 + 6 x 0.01 = 0.44333-ohms. Signal loss is proportional to resistance; therefore, the continuous 33-gauge wire has over twice the signal loss as the combination of wire with 6 connectors.
Signal loss is proportional to resistance only. In other words, the small voltage and current of a phono cartridge signal has no greater impact to the signal loss as would a much larger voltage and current. This is why having some formal education in electrical theory helps. It might seem like the minuscule voltage and current from a phono cartridge will be more susceptible to signal loss than higher line level voltages and currents, but that's not the case. Signal loss is proportional to resistance, only.
Best regards,
John Elison
Unless someone with higher qualifications than John is able to demonstrate the errors of his statement......I'm going with this
To rub further salt into the wounds of the 'fixed-headshell' brigade......the greatest improvements to the sounds of all my cartridges have occurred with changes to headshell material and construction.
Changes that far exceed (in many cases) those between individual cartridges themselves are readily available for ridiculously small amounts of money.
And this is something the fixed-headshell brigade will never experience......
In most cases, tonearms come with fixed headshells made of metal.
Only one of my 40 odd cartridges is mounted in a metal headshell with various wood and carbon-fibre shells sounding infinitely better
It will be interesting indeed to hear from all those truly experienced audiophiles on this Forum who have previously experienced only high-quality tonearms with fixed headshells and are now embarking on the sonic pleasures of the 3012R....