Allnic Puritas vs. Koetsu Stone Body

You might want to have a chat with David at Hammertone Audio who has tried the puritas in many many different arms. I would personally not choose a Reed and i am pretty sure David's best result (which is quite something i gather) is with the Kuzma 4 point. It's worth getting the right arm as the Puritas is a pretty amazing cart. The 12" Schick and custom heavy mass Audio Origami would be other viable options. Happy hunting !

I don't think Hammertone are in the business of selling tonearms so they have no vested interest. David is just passionate about showing the Puritas in the best possible light. Yes, it can work in the Reed but some people report problems with sibilance. Regardless, there are better arms for it as David's painstaking research has shown. In point of fact I actually sell Reed here in the UK but i am just trying to pass on the correct information to help out.

@Lew, I take your comments about the etiology of sibilance and do indeed agree with them. They are also bold comments and hint at a certain set of assumptions and invite me to erect a defense concerning my own abilites to understand, setup and debug a problematic turntable setup. I will spare you justificatory tedium though and just state very clearly that my comments and findings still firmly stand.

Apart from anything else, I am not the only one to have experienced unfixable sibilance issues with 3p 10.5" and 12". Hammertone also have 4 reed tonearms on site I believe but it does not even feature on their top recommended arms for the Puritas. As I said before, the Kuzma is out in front by some margin but then its a very very good arm with extremely good bearings which the Puritas likes, so hardly surprising. Down the cheaper end, Stefano also gets a very good result with the Schick (I have one on order):

http://twogoodears.blogspot.ca/search?q=allnic

None of this is speculation by the way and you may well get a good result with a Reed as it does seem to vary from person to speron (maybe the armboard/turntable is a factor). Note that I am not denouncing the Reed. It's a lovely arm and I use one myself. Just trying to be helpful.

@Suteetat, Thomas does not like Koetsus full stop (SPU Royal N is his cup of tea) and they do not work well in his 10.5 raven arm. AFAIK Jess C feels the same way. As far as I know though, there is no reason not to run with with a more suitable arm on a Raven deck.

Hi Suteetat, thanks for sharing. That's a shame that you haven't been able to try Koetsu/FR on the TW. I have not heard of many owners using Koetsu with TW. let me know if you ever manage to make or source an armboard and give it a go. BTW: a friend here in the UK uses the Simplicity on an AC and loves it. He changed to it from the Phantom. He runs an A90 predominantly.

FWIW: I am mainly using an Orpheus in my Reed at the moment(for personal listening). It works very well especially since I upgraded the TT to AC3 from AC1 which has improved dynamics a lot. Beforehand it was perhaps just a touch too polite with just one motor.

@Lewm, no problems Lew, as I mentioned, i agree with what you said.