Kuzma SAFIR 9
- Thread starter Marcus
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When my wife realized I bought myself a sapphire arm she had to have "something" sapphire herself so she has requested this:
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Platinum Emerald Cut Sapphire and Diamond 3 Stone Ring
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Sweet MJG. Table looks like a Kuzma XL 4 motor. What are did you use previously and what are your initial impressions of the Safir?
Appearance alone, the Kuzma Safir 9 belongs on the J. Sikora Reference TT
. Lovely TT set-up you have there 'MJG'
Thank you!Appearance alone, the Kuzma Safir 9 belongs on the J. Sikora Reference TT
Lovely TT set-up you have there 'MJG'
I‘ve had the Safir 9 for three months, mounted on the J. Sikora Standard Max before, changed to J. Sikora Reference today. Safir works excellent on both combos, added an incredible amount of substance, depth and transparency. Reference with Safir and Lyra Atlas Lambda SL to me are a perfect match.
Having listened to Kuzma Safir 9 with different cards, the general tendency of the arm is (as written from @MJG )
"substance, depth and transparency"
It is possible to underline this character with high resolution carts or to offset the character with a more soft and more emotional involving cart. My choice of carts is limited by the usage of the Phasemation T-2000 step up, which excludes (as example) Soundsmith and Grado carts.
I have seen in this thread the Koetsu Tigereye as a great set up, so I was planning to go the same direction, but than I got access to
an Aidas Mammoth Gold MKII cartridge
and I decided, that this might become a pair in heaven, sonically and from pure design purpose .
If you have seen the last Michael Fremer Video, demonstrating the pairing of Safir 9 and Audio Technica AT-MC2022,
you might understand, what is to my eyes an ugly set up ;-)
Even if the sound might be outstanding, I do not like the straight Kuzma Headshell paired with organic formed carts.
So the straight Aidas Design, similar to the beloved vdh colibri designs, matches the design language of the Safir 9 much better.
(personal view)
The first impression is great, beautiful flow of music, with the first notes you are deep traveling though the music as such,
not longer listening to details and *pling bling*
I felt it very hard to make the set up with the Aidas cart, using real music examples, as I always forgot, what I was looking for, ending up just with listening to the record side.
It looks like, that the Adidas cart will stay a little longer in my Kuzma Safir 9 tonearm.
"substance, depth and transparency"
It is possible to underline this character with high resolution carts or to offset the character with a more soft and more emotional involving cart. My choice of carts is limited by the usage of the Phasemation T-2000 step up, which excludes (as example) Soundsmith and Grado carts.
I have seen in this thread the Koetsu Tigereye as a great set up, so I was planning to go the same direction, but than I got access to
an Aidas Mammoth Gold MKII cartridge
and I decided, that this might become a pair in heaven, sonically and from pure design purpose .
If you have seen the last Michael Fremer Video, demonstrating the pairing of Safir 9 and Audio Technica AT-MC2022,
you might understand, what is to my eyes an ugly set up ;-)
Even if the sound might be outstanding, I do not like the straight Kuzma Headshell paired with organic formed carts.
So the straight Aidas Design, similar to the beloved vdh colibri designs, matches the design language of the Safir 9 much better.
(personal view)
The first impression is great, beautiful flow of music, with the first notes you are deep traveling though the music as such,
not longer listening to details and *pling bling*
I felt it very hard to make the set up with the Aidas cart, using real music examples, as I always forgot, what I was looking for, ending up just with listening to the record side.
It looks like, that the Adidas cart will stay a little longer in my Kuzma Safir 9 tonearm.
After some weeks with Kuzma Safir 9 I like to share some observations:
1. VTF
The Safir 9 is very heavy! I never had a tonearm, which is changing the VTF so dramatically by the height of the scale.
It is obvious, that the VTF should be measured in the area of the center of gravity of the arm.
But with Safir 9 this is a mandatory must.
Putting the scale on top of a record or on the platter can make a huge difference in VTF. (2.45 versus 2.0 as an example)
In my case the scale is too high to show the correct weight, even if placed direct on the platter.
The AF3P has fortunately the rubber ring on a level a little below the platter, so with my scale I can measure now on the level for a 180g record.
The Safir 9 has 2 counterweights, a big one and a little one. So the adjustment is very fast and can be made very precise.
As with every tonearm, the counterweight has a resonance control / damping effect as well. So at first I found out, that the position of the 2 weights do matter in sound. But (in my case) more important is the effect to counter turn the 2 weights into each other, that they are fixed together, depending on the torque you apply, the resonance effect will change. With some carts you might prefer the 2 weights being separate, with the Aidas Mammoth the 2 weights should be strong together to get a sharper and more precise picture of the musicians in the room and to get the transients more precise
2. VTA
adjusting VTA has (for me) two side effects with Safir 9.
One effect , the obvious one, is, that you change the height of the centre of gravity, so your VTF will change, when you adjust VTA.
On Safir 9, this can become a significant change.
I preferred (in my set up) to keep the base of the Safir 9 in parallel to the record and to get the best VTF measure.
It seems, that having the zero level of the record surface in the same layer than the centre of gravity of Safir 9 is better for the performance.
The second effect:
To adjust VTA, you have to open the big tonearmbase screw , than you can turn the little screw to adjust VTA precisely.
This works good!
After having done this, you close the tonearmbase screw again.
But you still will find to have some force against the little adjustment screw.
In my set up this sounds a very little muddy and closed.
Open up the adjustment screw to not have any torque applied,
opens up the performance of the music reproduction a little more.
I definitely makes fun to try to understand the Safir 9 better and better over the time
1. VTF
The Safir 9 is very heavy! I never had a tonearm, which is changing the VTF so dramatically by the height of the scale.
It is obvious, that the VTF should be measured in the area of the center of gravity of the arm.
But with Safir 9 this is a mandatory must.
Putting the scale on top of a record or on the platter can make a huge difference in VTF. (2.45 versus 2.0 as an example)
In my case the scale is too high to show the correct weight, even if placed direct on the platter.
The AF3P has fortunately the rubber ring on a level a little below the platter, so with my scale I can measure now on the level for a 180g record.
The Safir 9 has 2 counterweights, a big one and a little one. So the adjustment is very fast and can be made very precise.
As with every tonearm, the counterweight has a resonance control / damping effect as well. So at first I found out, that the position of the 2 weights do matter in sound. But (in my case) more important is the effect to counter turn the 2 weights into each other, that they are fixed together, depending on the torque you apply, the resonance effect will change. With some carts you might prefer the 2 weights being separate, with the Aidas Mammoth the 2 weights should be strong together to get a sharper and more precise picture of the musicians in the room and to get the transients more precise
2. VTA
adjusting VTA has (for me) two side effects with Safir 9.
One effect , the obvious one, is, that you change the height of the centre of gravity, so your VTF will change, when you adjust VTA.
On Safir 9, this can become a significant change.
I preferred (in my set up) to keep the base of the Safir 9 in parallel to the record and to get the best VTF measure.
It seems, that having the zero level of the record surface in the same layer than the centre of gravity of Safir 9 is better for the performance.
The second effect:
To adjust VTA, you have to open the big tonearmbase screw , than you can turn the little screw to adjust VTA precisely.
This works good!
After having done this, you close the tonearmbase screw again.
But you still will find to have some force against the little adjustment screw.
In my set up this sounds a very little muddy and closed.
Open up the adjustment screw to not have any torque applied,
opens up the performance of the music reproduction a little more.
I definitely makes fun to try to understand the Safir 9 better and better over the time
I like to recommend the Ortofon DS-3, it measures VTF correct. Watch Mickey Fremer's preview of his upcoming Safir rewiew. All tonearms with the 4Point bearing have to deal with this problem.
I turned both counterweights tightly against each other that they can still be adjusted. So I have the best results with the clearaudio DaVinci and Goldfinger and the Dynavetor DRT XV-1t. On the other hand, if I use the two counterweights without mutual contact, the difference in sound is negligible for me. But I suspect that possible differences are caused by different VTF settings.
You're damn right!I definitely makes fun to try to understand the Safir 9 better and better over the time
Question to members regarding mounting a Safir arm on a Basis Audio turntable. I have a customer that owns a 2200 Basis with original Vector arm and is now contemplating a Safir arm for the table. He called Basis Audio and they told him they don't make a mount that will accept anything other than their own arms. Seems very strange but that was what he was told. Anyone have a Basis table and ever mount a Kuzma arm on it? Thanks in advance.
The Kuzma Safir 9 works very nicely on the Acryl of Basis Audio.
I had mine fitted to the Basis Debut turntable.
But Basis 2200 has no separate Tonearmbase, the Vector tonearm is in 222mm distance, Safir needs 212mm.
So you have to change the complete baseplate of the turntable, which is like changing the turntable.
Please see pictures of Basis Debut and 2200 and you will understand.
Basis Debut, Safir no problem:
Basis 2200:
I had mine fitted to the Basis Debut turntable.
But Basis 2200 has no separate Tonearmbase, the Vector tonearm is in 222mm distance, Safir needs 212mm.
So you have to change the complete baseplate of the turntable, which is like changing the turntable.
Please see pictures of Basis Debut and 2200 and you will understand.
Basis Debut, Safir no problem:
Basis 2200:
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