At the end of the day a tonearm and cartridge in combination is ideally a pure vibration receiver. Every movement of the cantilever caused by its travel through the grooves is ideally converted to electrical signal unimpeded by the tonearm or any limitations of the cartridge. What happens when a cantilever is pushed laterally in one direction and another only damped by the underhung counterbalances employed by a typical unipivot? The answer is simple-vibrations are no longer being received intact and instead are compromised. And the grooves in which bass sounds are embedded cause the most lateral travel and are the most compromised. But then everything is likely compromised more than they have to be. The VPI unipivot design was very poor. So why be surprised that VPI is now slowly but surely converting to gimbal designs?
Gimbal vs unipivot tonearms
Curious as to the difference between these types of arms. In my experience, it seems as if unipivots are much more difficult to handle.
Is it like typical debates - depends on the actual product design/build or is one better sounding or less expensive or harder to set up....?
Is it like typical debates - depends on the actual product design/build or is one better sounding or less expensive or harder to set up....?