Developing A List Of Tonearm Candidates For A SOTA Turntable

FWIW, I had a Clearaudio Universal arm on an Innovation Wood for a few years. It was a delight to use and did nothing seriously wrong but I never cottoned to it all that much, always finding it a touch lean or metallic. I had a Phantom II on the same two-armed table and preferred it, even before an upgrade to Supreme. I also preferred the Triplanar VII uii I had an another turntable.

Ortofon just released a new line of arms that look very nice and supposedly have some upgrades over their discontinued Jelco-made arms (which actually sound pretty darn good, especially for the money), although I’m not certain exactly what, other than an improved bayonet mounting collar. They look more substantial. Not especially purist, though, with removable headshell and DIN connector, so quite unlike your Schroeder.

@neonknight, please let us know what you think of the Agile. It's an arm that has long intrigued me.

@neonknight : Congrats! I’m excited to hear what you think.

@neonknight : I’m curious how things are going with your new Agile. Care to share?

@neonknight : Thank you for your comments on the Agile. Good to hear that you like it. Being one of those benighted users who still changes VTA for varying record thickness, I’m curious about your thoughts on the VTA adjuster. In practice, does the calibrated dial lend itself to easy, frequent adjustment? What’s the actual process?

@audio_rd_uk : Glad you chimed in about your Agile. The same VTA questions to you. Also, did you have the chance to hear a 12-inch version during your forays to OL headquarters? If so, what sonic differences did you note? I’m considering it for the back position on my Technics SP10R, which needs a long arm in that spot.

@neonknight Ah, I see. Is the grub screw adjusted with hex key? Using a ball-tipped hex key makes it easier with a recessed armboard, since you can insert it at an angle. My armboards are like that, and my Graham arms have a tiny grub screw to lock and unlock the post. The ball-tip makes it almost convenient.

@audio_rd_uk : Thank you for your extensive comments on VTA, which I think were directed at me rather than @neonknight, since I opened the can of well-worn worms on adjusting VTA by asking about the dial on the Agile. I certainly appreciate the rigor of your analysis, but I do take issue with one conclusion:

My conclusion is, if adjustment each time works for you, doesn’t ’annoy you’ and you hear a difference, then have a L,M,H setting you can easily move to* then why not, but see if you do also have to adjust tracking mass because you are effectively altering the horizontal (and thus the gravity acting) distance from the pivot to the tip of the diamond, so would you want to be altering that as well?

This describes me pretty well: for each of my 7 tonearms, I have well-established presets in mind for standard LP weights, which approximately correspond to varying thicknesses. It’s easy to move between them per LP to maintain, for example, a level tonearm (which for argument’s sake only I will posit as ideal). So, is it not true that, if you set up all parameters with a level tonearm, maintaining a level tonearm by adjusting VTA actually retains "the horizontal (and thus the gravity acting) distance from the pivot to the tip of the diamond," and therefore the "tracking mass"? And in fact, not adjusting for record thickness would alter these parameters?

I’ve heard and read all the arguments by Fremer and other lovely experts as to why it’s impossible to hear minor variations from 92 degrees SRA, and the logic is compelling. I’ve tried and tried not to hear them with all my tonerams, setting VTA for, let’s say, a 160g LP and leaving it alone. It always sounds worse, and in predictable ways, for LPs of other thicknesses. Cue @mijostyn to tell me why I’m suffering from confirmation bias self-delusion :-). It’s an old specter that I did not intend to conjure again. I really only wanted to know more about the VTA mechanism on the Agile, which seems like it would suit my peculiar need.

@dover, that's really interesting. Thank you.

@mijostyn, it's hard to believe you ever nap!

@audio_rd_uk, my mistake. I appreciate the clarification on slight variances.

@neonknight, great to hear how satisfying this new set up is. That’s what we’re all after.

@audio_rd_uk, thanks for following up on the 12-in Agile. Your rig looks sharp in the vid. So it seems you found the 12 to be slightly more relaxed and less dynamic that the 9.5, which is not unusual. I have 12 and 9 Graham Phantoms (III and Supreme, respectively) on the same turntable and that pretty much describes the difference in their sonic profiles. BTW, I recently adopted the OL Strata mat on this turntable. It's excellent, and I say that as someone with an embarrassing number of mats in the closet.