Yes I eventually thought about this too last night, but what does this have to do with how the cutting head cuts and why?
World Debut: Vertere Reference Tonearm
- Thread starter garylkoh
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Yes I eventually thought about this too last night, but what does this have to do with how the cutting head cuts and why?
I don't know if it's got anything to do with the cutter head directly but most mixes have the kick and bass panned center or close to center. As a result, a lot of the LF ends up being mono. It would be incidental to what the cutter head will do to a certain extent, I suppose.
It seems Touraj has gone with different effective lengths for the two planes while others either just damp the pivot or damp the arm laterally. I don't recall him mentioning the cutter head but rather the pick up's magnets. I'm assuming he meant their gaps.
It seems Touraj has gone with different effective lengths for the two planes while others either just damp the pivot or damp the arm laterally. I don't recall him mentioning the cutter head but rather the pick up's magnets. I'm assuming he meant their gaps.
Correct, now then take where the center of mass of the arm and the distance it is away from the fulcrum, and you have the moment of inertia of the arm. When the counter weight slides back, so does the center of mass. Where the counterweight is for the vertical fulcrum to generate a 2g VTF, in the horizontal plane the counterweight is way further back and the arm would not come down. The effective mass vertically is far higher than the effective mass horizontally.
Take your cartridge compliance/effective mass calculations and for the same cartridge compliance, increase the effective mass. The resonance frequency of the arm goes down. Because of how the cutterhead works (left and right channel out of phase at 45-deg angles and low-frequency mono) the stylus moves side-to-side at low frequencies and up and down at high frequencies. So, you want a higher resonant frequency side to side than up and down. The arm's job is to hold the cartridge extremely steady at the frequencies that are in the groove, and at the same time allow the cartridge to move extremely freely so as to be moved by the groove. I like to say that the perfect tonearm would have infinite inertia and zero momentum - which is of course impossible.
I hope I've got it right. I'll see if Touraj will chime in.
OK that's a great explanation Gary - but how does that then differ from other tried and true arms featuring different resonant frequencies like the ET-2.x I mentioned back then. Is one design superior over the other, or is Touraj's design yet another spin on the same fundamental approach. "is it better, or is it different but fundamentally the same"
I'm not sure about the ET-2.x and why it has different resonant frequencies. To my knowledge, the rationale for that arm was never explicitly explained. I know, for example, that Soundsmith makes cartridges with different horizontal and vertical compliance so that they will work better with linear tracking tonearms, but that as I understand was because such tonearms always have different vertical and horizontal effective masses.
Whether Touraj's tonearm is fundamentally superior.... only time will tell. In the 5 days I had with the tonearm, I thought that it was head and shoulders over every other tonearm I've used - and I haven't used as many as many of you here.
Whether Touraj's tonearm is fundamentally superior.... only time will tell. In the 5 days I had with the tonearm, I thought that it was head and shoulders over every other tonearm I've used - and I haven't used as many as many of you here.
I am looking forward to reading more details directly from Touraj if possible, perhaps as part of some review down the road. I remain curious but skeptical, as different resonant frequencies in the two planes is nothing new, though different effective lengths probably is.
garylkoh said:
If that was really the basic idea, then what about cartridge compliance? Is it the same in horizontal and vertical directions, and this for all cartridges?
And if laterally modulated grooves are a real problem resonance-wise (never noticed any with my setup), then why not go for a lateral resonance frequency that is well below those groove modulation frequencies, instead of going above?
Klaus
Touraj is a Graduate of London's Imperial College; one of the best engineering universities in the world.He also has an excellent reputation going back to the early days of Roksan;he has always kept faith with his customers. However, I can't make much sense of the costing and technology involved here.In the end it is another form of bearing. And the finish looks a touch problematic.
Early days, and perhaps the doubters will all be proved quite wrong.But if I were to spend 35,000 dollars (!) I would expect something incredible...such as a Air Tangent Reference air bearing arm.So far I haven't seen anything that looks incredible, or even extraordinary.Go on...surprise us.
Early days, and perhaps the doubters will all be proved quite wrong.But if I were to spend 35,000 dollars (!) I would expect something incredible...such as a Air Tangent Reference air bearing arm.So far I haven't seen anything that looks incredible, or even extraordinary.Go on...surprise us.
I am not sure of the relevance of his Imperial College Degree to the sound of his equipment... The price remains extravagantly high . Seeing how hard we are speculating on the arm physics at work, we know that audiophiles are busy fashioning rationales for the arm lofty asking price. Already we can say that said price is sinking in ... and a more expensive arm will come up from another manufacturer .. In Classic High End Audio fashion.
FrantzM said:
For the time being I can't see the problem this particular design (different effective masses in vertical and horizontal planes) would solve. If that problem of bass modulation induced resonance in the horizontal plane existed indeed, then every other arm should experience that problem, which it doesn't. Maybe that's because the other arms have their horizontal resonance frequency well below the frequency range in question.
Just another case of a solution for a problem that doesn't exist???
In had a look at Bruce Thigpen's patent for his ET arm, and the reason indicated for different effective masses in vertical and horizontal planes is the same: "If a cartridge 36 drives a moving system with slightly higher horizontal mass, this is desirable because most low frequency energy which exists in modern records is cut horizontally."
The ET arm achieves this by decoupling the counterweight.
http://www.google.com/patents/US4628500
Klaus
Edit: just discovered this pdf.
http://www.vertereacoustics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/TAdocFile12ss1.pdf
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Light Switch
Instead of the the dimmer and battery supply, if this is just a cue assist why not a switch that automatically turns the light off when the arm swings in enough to start playing music? Would eliminate a lot of complexity in something not really necessary to play the record.
Also with all this high tech, there's no easy way for me to switch between my mono and stereo cartridges?
Instead of the the dimmer and battery supply, if this is just a cue assist why not a switch that automatically turns the light off when the arm swings in enough to start playing music? Would eliminate a lot of complexity in something not really necessary to play the record.
Also with all this high tech, there's no easy way for me to switch between my mono and stereo cartridges?
That's a good idea
When the record starts playing the room lights dim, and then when it reaches end of side, the room lights come on again to help you take the record off.View attachment 9518
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From the Singapore launch at Absolute Sound.
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From the Singapore launch at Absolute Sound.
The US price is now $38500 with 1,5m reference cable and $28000 without.
And now we are waiting for the Vertere Reference turntable.
And now we are waiting for the Vertere Reference turntable.
The price as of April 14 is in the video, so are the dancing men. Who has the best moves? (hint it's not me)
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