Arms w/ azimuth adjustment while record is playing

Adjusting azimuth on a Graham 2.2 requires raising the stylus off the LP. The adjustment is very quick, much quicker than a JMW or Triplanar, but it's not quite "while the record is playing".

My experience is the same as Lewm's, the Talea's the only arm I know which allows this.

Graham 2.2

I think the Talea is on a list by itself. With all due respect, the WT tonearms take a long time to stabilize after one has made an azimuth adjustment, and indeed can tend to change azimuth all by themselves as they traverse an LP, due to the interaction of skating force and the viscous bearing. With a WT, I would rather take care to be certain the azimuth is stable, which does not include altering the adjustment "on the fly". That's just my opinion after years of helping a friend tinker with his WT Reference tonearm. The problem may or may not apply to the Amadeus tonearm. No offense meant.

Br3098,

Adjusting azimuth during play on a JMW (and most tonearms) would indeed be risky, foolhardy even, but that misses the point.

On some tonearms (like the Talea mentioned by Dan_Ed) the risk is essentially zero. Adjusting azimuth on the Talea is demonstrably less risky than adjusing VTA on your JMW (or my TriPlanar, or any other arm I've used). The OP asked which arms offer this feature and the Talea is one.

As regards "why", the advantage is the same as for any on-the-fly adjustment: the ability to hear changes as we adjust makes adjusting faster and more accurate. This is unaffected by the risk, or lack thereof, on any particular arm.

The Durand Talea features both true on-the-fly AZ and VTA adjustments.

Talea

dealer disclaimer

Because of the way the Well Tempered Arm is constructed, there is no chance of damage, because the whole arm rocks as the adjustment knob on the arm mount (which doesn't move) is turned.

All "full" versions of the VPI JMW arm allow you to adjust VTA on the fly. I cannot think why I would want to adjust azimuth during play - methinks there is too much chance of damage to the stylus and/or the LP.

BTW - nice handle, dude.