Curved and Straight Tonearms

The J and S shape tonearms (need to) use the so called ''lateral

balance'' weight in order to get equal pressure on both horizontal

bearings. The J kind is difficult to balance while the S can be

balanced by lifting up the front side of the TT and then moving the

later weight till the arm reach equilibrium postion. From this it  

follows (?) that stright tonearms can't be in equilibrium position

because one side of the bearings  get more pressure than the

other.

helomech, The Germans have this curious opinion: ''if theory and

practice coincide than both are probably false''. I own the  FR-64

designed by Ikeda san but also Ikeda 345 . Both have the same

'S' shape but the later is without the lateral weight. So, it seems,

Ikeda was not convinced about  (theoretical ?) advantage of this

''lateral weight'' by his previous arm.  

Your own ''bias'' is obvious because you used the expression

''the slightest weight bias''  with intention to belittle the issue(grin).

I would say ''it depends''  , among other, from the weight of

the headshell as well the cart. I own ''some'' which are above 30 g. 

Dear Lew, If there was something wrong with lateral balance or

shape by FR-64 Raul would of course mention this many times

instead of ''damping problem''.  I made a considerable profit on

his recommended MM carts because those increased in price

as result. So I expected the opposite regarding the FR-64 because

I am still looking for the perfect sample. Alas this never happened.

You must be better in mathematics than I because everybody is

better in mathematics. But regarding the shape which I guess has

something to do with geometry (?) I am like this Serbian hunter

and chakster: ''still a goat !'' (aka S shape). I hope your FR-64 is

not mounted on one of your own made plinths? The only way I

know to adjust the lateral weight is to lift the front side for about

10-15 cm and then move the weight in the opposite direction in

which the arm moves ''on its own''. Till you get the arm in equilibrium.

If whatever moves ''on its own'' then there must be some ''will''

present. Why not by inanimate objects? How do some(?)

particles know where the other are (grin)?

helomech, You are sportmanlike if your comment is meant as I would like to understand it (grin).

Dear Dover, ''there are many ways to skin a cat'' but this philosophy

does not apply for the lateral balance by FR-64. I have no idea why

this distance of 5mm is mentioned in the user manual. By using the

expression ''Apprrox 5 mm'' the manual is as ''exact'' as this

prescription. Not as curious as Raul's ''leveling the TT'' with the

lateral balance but it is difficult to judge which ''advice'' is worst.

BTW why should anyone use ''approximation'' when the correct

method is describd in the same manual? The possible exception

is our ''exceptional Lew'' because his plinths are exceptional qua

weight. Those can't be lifted (grin).

''The less the better or the heavier the better'' are both curious

rules. Those are probably ''deduced'' from Aristotelian ''essences''.

There is this principle called ''reduction of the complexity'' but this

has nothing to do with Aristotelian ''essences'' because he was

proven wrong by Galileo reg. physics and  by Frege reg. logic.

I also missed your opinion about shape. I like Lew very much but

I think that he and, more in partucular Raul, are/is wrong with

their ''J'' guess. Compare the (old) SME arms with FR-64 so

even blind people will see the difference. Looking at the back

side tube by FR-64 one can see the (slight) deviation to the

right seeing from above. To get the innicial balance between

the bearings the ''S'' shape is needed. The ''J'' kinds always

need lateral weight for this purpose. The later Ikeda arms can

obviously do without.  This to me means ''S'' shape,

Dear dover, I am glad that I provoked this lecture about bearings.

The sense of our forum is also to learn and not only to exchange

our opinions. I have seen some info about Ikeda's new tonearms

but missed the info about new kinds of bearings which he used

in his new tonearms. My (wrong) guess was that he made some

sevings by omission of the lateral balance. Even by such prices

the argument of ''savings'' somehow seems to work (grin).

Genesis 168, For those who swear by following the user manual

you should mention that ''P to S'' distance as prescribed in the

manual is 230 mm. Not 231,5 mm. The later is recommended

by the first German review of the FR-64 S tonearm by ''Das Ohr"

Magazine in April 1984. ''Our'' dertonarm was back than reviewer

by this Magazine.

This is of course the so called ''Bearwald geometry'' while Ikeda's

230 mm ''means'' Stevenson .

Dear Lew, The round plate before VTF adjuster has only decorative

function. To get inside the arm this plate need to be removed. This

plate is glued with a kind of ''weak glue'' but is, alas, not easy to

remove . When removed the first thing we can see is the spring

which has two functions. One is for the VTF adjustment the other

is dynamic function of the arm. The mentioned spring is ''loaded''

in grease which can harden as function of time. Dertonarm advised

''watchmaker method'' to make the greas liquid: ''put the arm in the

sun''. In my case this was not sufficient so I removed the old sticky

greas from the spring and put new ''fresh grease'' instead. The VTF

adjuster works smood since while possible resonances are

 supressed by the grease. Now regarding ''damping'' . I owned

Triplanar VII for some years but never used ''damping provision''

with oil ''can''. Nor deed anyone else to my knowledge. So the

Triplanar also lacks damping according to Raul. BTW you are

wrong about ''inanimate objects''. ''Der Tonarm'' means the tonearm

in English and both refer to an inanimate object but one of our

former member has chosen this name as his member name.

Yuo obviously ovelooked the real object of Raul's hate.  

Dear Lew, But you was not able to see the VTF spring and the greas

in which the spring is dipped. So Raul may be right by assuming

all kinds of resenances caused by the spring in your FR-64 . My got

 so much greas that it hardly can bread. So no resonances of any

kind in my FR-64 sample.

I asked Yip by the Mint tractor who already made two of those

for my other tonearms to make one for my FR-64 but with ''P

to S'' distance of 231,5 mm. According to him and the tractor

I got this meant 246 mm effective lenght, Not 248,13 mm .

But some persons knows everything better it seems.

Dear genesis 168, I actually don't believe in ''collective psychology''.

I think that each of us has his own. But sometimes I am not sure

because people also repait what some other have stated, Say that

''crescendo's by classical music'' are at or near the record end. I

own nearly only classical music and have rarely seen any record

with any music near the end of the record. Then the most

composers of the classical music composed their works long before

records were invented and introduced. So they must be clairvoyant

such that they wrote the crescendos ''for the end'' of the record.

If this is ''the argument'' for Stevenson than no wonder why most

of us prefer Bearwald. BTW what happened with you preference for

the ''P to S'' distance of 231,5 mm by FR-64 which is Bearwald

and not Stevenson?

Dear Lew, I thought that oil and grease are different ''animals''

 but I am not an expert in this domein of knowledge. However

I always try to be kind to you . That is why I deed not mention

Wagner in my last post. I know about your difficult upbringing

because your whole family was fond of Wagner. So you was

 probably forced to listen to even Wagner's soprananos. Curious

but true your love for music was reborn by a trumpet. I was always

wondering why this instrument is regarded as an ''musical

instrument'' but this is the best illustration of the truth of the

known saying ''one man poison...'', etc.

Now back to Wagner. All his opera's are recorded on at least

5 records. This way the Germans cheated me with at least 20

superfluous records because I needed to pay for them while

 those ''5'' could be easilly ''put'' on 4 records. That is if they used,

 say,Stevenson instead of Bearwald. I don't believe that much

imagination is needed to grasp that record companies prefer

to sell more records than less.

Dear genesis, Either you also dislike Wagner or my Wagner

argument was not convincing. But if my Wagner argument make

sense  what sense then has Stevenson alignment? That is to say

if there is nothing on those ''at or near the end of the record''.

If you were an Wagnerian with all those superfluous records

in your collection you would have more empathy for my position.

Anyway for the financial kind.

Hi larryi, I think we won the dispute on musical ground (my

Wagner story) and technical ground (your technical story).