Kuzma SAFIR 9

[SOS]

Sweet set-up! Can you tell me have you compared the Soundsmith Hyperion that you have mounted to a Soundsmith Sussurro MKII (which I had just prior to my MSL).
Also try listening to your Safir with and without the small armlift attached, I feel I get slightly better transparency without it attached. Obvioulsy you will have to readjust the tracking force.

 

[shakti]

Soundsmith Sussuro MK II is more on the warmer side, Hyperion more on the dynamic side, at least in my former set ups.

I know the effect of the small headshell Pins from my Yamamoto headshells. Their Titan Pin comes with a small rubber ring, I might try this one on the Kuzma part, as I prefer the handling with the attached Pin.

In regard of fine tuning, at first I played around with the VTA screw on top of the tonearm.

If you adjust VTA with that screw, this screw is fixed with a certain torque. After fixing the arm height with the major side screw, it is possible to loosen the VTA adjustment screw on top.

Between loose and fix you will find the point of soft touch, which (in my set up) is the sweet point for the energy transfer.
More airy, more depth, more energy, more focus. (just a little, but audible)

Does anyone has already experience with the counterweight. Do you drill the 2 weights with force together or do you leave a space between them?

 

[shakti]

playing around, thanx to @SOS for the inspiration

 

[PeterA]

Sweet. One of the first LPs I spin after putting on a new cartridge or tonearm is Johnny Hartman "Once in Every LIfe".

 

[SOS]

@shakti so just to verify that TY-1 Titanium finger hook from Japan fits (screws) in the Kuzma headshell? And your thoughts how it compares to the one supplied by Kuzma?

 

[shakti]

@shakti so just to verify that TY-1 Titanium finger hook from Japan fits (screws) in the Kuzma headshell? And your thoughts how it compares to the one supplied by Kuzma?

As you already heard, the SAFIR 9 sounds best without the small headshell Pin.
This is (to my experience) similar to many headshells / tonearms with detachable Pin.

Unfortunately I prefer to play records using a Pin on the headshell,
so without is no alternative for me.

Fortunately Yamamoto is offering for their Headshells the TY-1 Titanium Pin with a silicon ring to minimize resonances.

The TY-1 fits to some headshells, like Soundsmith, as well, so I tried the TY-1 on the SAFIR 9 and to my surprise it fits the arm.

Titanium on this position is less nervous and more quiet, if you add the silicon rubber ring, this effect becomes in my set up even too much. The differences are not big, but audible. By the way the screws on the picture are also from Yamamoto and from alloy/Titanium.

In my solid state / Avalon set up I prefer actual the TY-1. But please have in mind, that I am just starting to find out more about the SAFIR 9. May be after 100h or more playing / burn in time I am going to change back to the original Pin.

 

[thekong]

playing around, thanx to @SOS for the inspiration

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Hi Shakir, I see that you are using plastic (?) spacers on your cartridge screw. I was under the impression that direct contact with no spacers were best. Have you compared the with and without? Thanks

 

[shakti]

The spacer are no soft plastic, but very hard versions originally supplied with the AS Arche headshell.

I do use them for installation purposes to not damage the headshell.

If the final position is found, I replace one of the spacers to allow easy energy flow on one point of the headshell

Torque of this screws than is the next step to fine tune.

But I will wait for this 2 steps until burn in time is done.

 

[phoni]

This is a funny thread... you're worrying about whether you're going to hear what washers do to cart mounting or screwing the two counterweights together, etc. This is a new pretty new tonearm, but nobody's thinking about burning in its wiring first! Everything you might hear is nothing in direct comparison... Can a cable be burned in with voltages in the range of 0.35 mV? Is this high enough to do this job? I don't think so, right?

 

[shakti]

This is a funny thread... you're worrying about whether you're going to hear what washers do to cart mounting or screwing the two counterweights together, etc. This is a new pretty new tonearm, but nobody's thinking about burning in its wiring first! Everything you might hear is nothing in direct comparison... Can a cable be burned in with voltages in the range of 0.35 mV? Is this high enough to do this job? I don't think so, right?

The mechanical resonance effects of washers, screws and so on are different to the effect of cable burn in.

If the cable is supposed to become a phono wire, the burn in should be done with the according voltage.

My burn in machine has different voltages for MC, MM and line, that the cables get the right voltage for the best burn in effect.

 

[phoni]

If the cable is supposed to become a phono wire, the burn in should be done with the according voltage.

My burn in machine has different voltages for MC, MM and line, that the cables get the right voltage for the best burn in effect.

... still funny!

The Safir is wired through as standard, a plug-in connection is only available on request. Which burn-in machine differs between MM and MC? Faith moves mountains ...

 

[shakti]

as you have asked

 

[SOS]

Just had a look on haglabs.com site and the Frybaby2 seems to be only for interconnects, curious how you are using it to burn-in the phono cable on your Safir arm?

 

[shakti]

Just had a look on haglabs.com site and the Frybaby2 seems to be only for interconnects, curious how you are using it to burn-in the phono cable on your Safir arm?

it is a little DIY needed, little crocodile clamps and cinch connectors...

 

[phoni]

... why so complicated and expensive? Take a simple 1m interconnect from RadioShack, remove the RCA connectors on one end and solder its leads to the contacts of an IC socket, which you will use to connect to the tonearm's internal wiring. Further you shorten the RCA plugs of the tonearm cable with a resistor of 10 k/1 watt. The interconnect is then connected to the output of a CD player playing in repeat mode. Now playback music and/or burn-in signals!

 

[shakti]

Wen can continue to discuss "Burn in" in this thread:

Silver cable break in

I have this silver cable that I bought new, and it is really stubborn in terms on burn in time. I also had some other silver cables before, end they also took "forever" to break. I mean up to 500 hours and more. Anyone else experiencing long burn in time for silver cable? Thanks:)

www.whatsbestforum.com

Here it starts to become too much off topic.

Today I customized an AX5G Micro Seiki gunmetal base to fit to Kuzma tonearms, so I was able to install the KUZMA SAFIR 9 to my TechDAS AF3P turntable. This will give me the chance to compare the Kuzma Arm to more other tonearms.

To do so, I installed the TechDAS TDC-01 cartridge (connected to Kondo SF-Z step up)

 

[Kcin]

Soundsmith Sussuro MK II is more on the warmer side, Hyperion more on the dynamic side, at least in my former set ups.

I know the effect of the small headshell Pins from my Yamamoto headshells. Their Titan Pin comes with a small rubber ring, I might try this one on the Kuzma part, as I prefer the handling with the attached Pin.

In regard of fine tuning, at first I played around with the VTA screw on top of the tonearm.

If you adjust VTA with that screw, this screw is fixed with a certain torque. After fixing the arm height with the major side screw, it is possible to loosen the VTA adjustment screw on top.

Between loose and fix you will find the point of soft touch, which (in my set up) is the sweet point for the energy transfer.
More airy, more depth, more energy, more focus. (just a little, but audible)

Does anyone has already experience with the counterweight. Do you drill the 2 weights with force together or do you leave a space between them?

Very nice discussion. I found the Safir very challenging to my mind in terms of how it transcribes a record compared to my 4 Point.

The set up is far more crude than the 4 Point- as you indicate- yet possible to get to a different, more finessed place.

The overall sound of this arm has a tape like purity that is very different from anything I have listened to.

 

[phoni]

Today I customized an AX5G Micro Seiki gunmetal base to fit to Kuzma tonearms ...

Why gunmetal? This is an alloy of bronze and tin ... the original TechDAS basis is made from aluminium.

 

[shakti]

Why gunmetal? This is an alloy of bronze and tin ... the original TechDAS basis is made from aluminium.

Micro Seiki offered with the benefit of High Volumes their tonearm bases in alloy and gunmetal. It was choosen by turntable and Tonearm needs. Gunmetal is more heavy, so has a deeper resonance frequency, the transmission speed for resonances is higher. Aluminum ha a higher dampingfactor.

TechDAS, which is basically the continuation of Micro Seiki is offering only Aluminium bases as a reference to todays small volume production.

But still the mechanics are the same, so mostly I do prefer the more heavy gunmetal versions of the tonearmbase, mostly on heavy tonearms.

Using Glanz or Ikeda on original TechDAS tonearm bases, I do use heavy nuts ( like FR-N60) to get the weight into this position.

I tried once an aftermarket Titanium Tonearmbase, which I liked for the Axiom Tonearm.

Fortunately Nishikawa San specified AF5 and AF3 similar to the Micro Seiki RX/SX series, aonit is easy to use MS tonearm bases

 

[mtemur]

To do so, I installed the TechDAS TDC-01 cartridge (connected to Kondo SF-Z step up)

Which SFz, 1.5/30 ohm or 1/3/40 ohm? How is the synergy between SUT and cartridge?