A Story about a Defective Signature Platinum

Consider Grado. Comparing the Diamond Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum with the Grado Epoch, the Epoch is just better. More resolving, smoother, better tracker. 

@pindac Thank you for the the suggestion. I had never heard of mycelium used in this way. I found an article which you may find interesting:

That is a truly awful story. Sympathy.

Like MSL apparently, Koetsu likes to hide. Maybe a cultural thing - so what? The effects are the same as ill will. That was part of my decision to buy more locally this time, and Grado is mightily accessible and mightily good to deal with. Great product, too.

"Koetsu is also distributed by MoFi." Yes. And the Epoch is better. IMO

@lewm  Or perhaps the Ministry of Silly Walks (J. C. - no, the other one)?

Glad to hear of it, Mijp. You deserved better.

@mulveling My wife gave me an Epoch 3 for the last birthday, and I can say that it’s better in every respect than my diamond rosewood (out of the box vs 1400 hours with minimal wear at 1000). Tonearm wands pampas grass and panzerholz, respectively. Epoch / pampas grass slightly clearer, slightly better dynamics, far better tracking, with consummate smoothness. Don’t know how much of that is the wand, but pretty sure not all of it, especially not tracking

Pampas grass can make a great tonearm wand. Ugly yes - I’m working on that. Let me know if you are interested.

Sort of. Several stalks bonded together with elasomeric glue with an orthogonal epoxy laminate. Lacking resonance altogether and stiff as carbon fibre epoxy. The exotic high-tech wands look rather primitive to me now.

@jperry Please post a picture here or on your system page. Thanks.

Done. Panzerholz and Pampas grass.

From 09:01, on the 12th, "Pampas grass can make a great tonearm wand. Ugly yes - I’m working on that." Sorry for sharing my prototypes, but I thought others might be interested.

@mijostyn You don't understand. It's a proof of concept. In any case, it's a triangular prism, not a cylinder.

@pindac  Thank you for the kind words. And far more, thank you for your thoughtful suggestions.

I am running a linear tracker, so the horizontal effective mass is the mass of the whole assembly. This is about 200 g - the mass of the air bushing alone is 50 g, and then there's the counterweight and cartridge. You can see how important it is for me to keep the rigidity high and the mass low. This precludes densification for my application.

So I opted for a different approach. At first I thought of a foam core surrounded by fibre and epoxy, but then I weighed some pampas grass stalks and found them to be little heavier than foam, and just as non-resonant. Further, when laminated, they are quite rigid on their own, and form a constraining layer to constrict the epoxy. Orient the fibre as a winding, and throw in some elastomeric glue, and the result sings.

Vacuum chamber is a very good idea to increase rigidity and consistency. I'll try that on the next iteration. Thanks!

Depends on your aesthetic. If looking pretty concerns you most, then pretty you will have, but performance will be hit and miss - a commonplace in the audio world. If, however, sounding good concerns you most, you will start with good sound and evolve towards pretty. If you have nothing better to do, or to spend on, that is.

@pindac   So glad that you, at least, are interested.  I'll keep you posted - been looking to see what it would take to modify an old pressure cooker.

@pindac  Ah yes, Panzerholz. It's the best commercially available material that I know of. See, for example, the Reed website. Researchers in Europe, (Netherlands? Germany?) like GLARE, an acronym for Glass Laminate Aluminum Reinforced Epoxy, which is also interesting. But I suspected that biology might have solved the problem of stiffness without resonance a few million yearrs ago - and then I noticed pampas grass in the front yard. Hmmn ...

Thanks for the links.

@mijostyn Unfortunately, there's not much room to shape the wand. Evolution shaped these stalks and constructed them in a way which is pretty much optimal for the task. Boring out the middle would eliminate the mechanical integrity, as would shaving down one end. The only alternative is to put a spacer inside the prism at one end, but this eliminates the strength and rigidity of the closely coupled triple.

I don't like to compromise performance, so I don't use head shells. Besides that, my Mayajima Zero mono lacks the ultimate refinement of the Koetsu, so I don't use it much, and now that I have the Epoch, won't be using the Koetsu so much.

The bearing end of the tonearm is a plate of Panzerholz, which is attached to the air bushing plate (2024 alloy aluminum) with 4 machine screws. The bushing plate is attached to the air bushing (20mm NewWay) with a copious amount of elastomeric glue (M1). Counterweight is silver on a #10 steel machine screw.

@pindac  Looked up the links, thank you. The researchers used pampas grass fibres, interestingly. These seem to have been harvested from the stalks, much denser than what I used, The stalks are about 15% the density of a fibre bundle, and more rigid than balsa of the same density - I was going to try balsa next, after the pampas grass experiment failed - except that it didn't. That's evolution for you.

So I use pampas grass in the same way that nature intended: as a longitudinal whole - the same reason that premium Japanese walking sticks are made from biologicals which have been forced to grow in a certain shape - say a walking stick. Or so I have read.

Wonder why no-one is using elastomerics inside a pampas grass matrix? Well, we are.

@mijostyn Interesting cartridge connection scheme. Very similar to my own solution, except that instead of the cartridge on a plate, the cartridge is on its own wand, so that the cartridge can be matched to the appropriate wand. Also, VTA, VTF, Azimuth are all incorporated into the wand, so there’s no setup required - other than doing and undoing 4 machine screws and the cartridge clips.

Re sapphire - rigidity I’ll give you, speed of sound I’ll give you, resonance doesn’t seem at all likely. The sapphire tubes I have ring beautifully - i.e. resonate.

I was going to try sapphire until the pampas grass turned out so well.

@mijostyn  I wasn't talking about the Reed system, I was talking about mine. Wood or wood-like composite all the way. Similar speeds of sound in each material reduce reflections.

So what is your own thing?

My impression (as a patent holder) is that patents ain't what they used to be. But I understand your position - I'm ambivalent about giving up the best of my own developments. In my case, it's probably just nostalgia.