Gimbal vs unipivot tonearms

Dear @dover  : ""  do not understand the trade offs inherent in each of the various options. ""

Agree but when you have to choose in between you will choose according what those trade-offs tells you and the ones that goes in better way to your specific MUSIC/audio priorities.

Like you Ihave first hand experiences with all that kind of tonearms you name it ( I owned the ET2. ) and my final choice is to gimball pivoted ones not unipivots or LT.
For me the gimball ones are way better than unipivots and this does not means I don't understand about trade-offs because I do.

R.

Dear @rodman99999  :  Very appreciated your time and advise.

Now, The time when I was willing to buy almost every vintage/today tonearms was many years ago when I was in that " score " of my audio life and I owned 25-30 different tonearms and from that came my " curiosity " to try the Magnepan. 

Not any more but thank's.

R.

Dear @rodman99999  : "   ever having listened to or tested the other's system "

You are rigth but the unipívot behavior is way similar in between this kind of design. Never mind, you are happy and this is what it counts: rigth?

R.

Dear @rodman99999  :  I almost agree with all what you posted  ( only a couple of issues where I have a " different " opinion. ) and you are rigth.

I never can put my hands in a NOS Unitrac and the only time I was nearer to I losted on ebay auction, my lost because I wanted to test it.

Anyway,  the Unitrac shares the same " problems " not only as unipivots but gimball tonearms too and these is that develops several kinds of resonances during playback that the Unitrac can't avoid and does not matters that the cartridges been high compliance.
Unfortunatelly those developed  resonances/distortions just " colored " the top to bottom the frequency range of what our system is reproducing.

In that " top to bottom " the more important issue is to damp/tame those resonances precisely at the bass range because its harmonics affects all the frequency range. Gimball tonearms are superior to unipivots in this speciofic regards.

So, I'm with the @mijostyn advise that even that you are satisfied with what you have you need to make some listen sessions with a gimball tonearm. The overall improvement could be higher that what you can imagine and if you don't like it always can return to the Unitrac.

Btw,my room/system is fine tunned through nearfield real MUSIC tracks LPs tests.

Regards and ejoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Dear @sokogear : "  they don't mention gimbal or unipivot in their Series V arm description.  ""

I think you are an analog newcomer .

This is the Agon ANALOG forum and other than the newcomers almost all are experienced hobbyst that know SME tonearm are not unipivot designs .

SME knows that's not need it to put in the tonearm description that's non unipivot design.

R.

Btw, this is the " down there " I’m talking about:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYE67fVny4c&list=RDCMUCMdOWi6nBZJ3Q0tHNQIOUVA&start_radio=1&rv=mYE67fVny4c&t=0

Don't go directly from the link but paste the link and then google it.

R.

Dear friends: I'm with @mijostyn conclusion in this specific regards.

I owned several unipivots and I still have one from Grace and what for me is the best unipivot: Satin and I think that I still have one from Stax ( I think is unipivot. ). I owned Moerch, Audiocraft and other, not any more.

I have to say that under specific and controled circumstances  Unipivots could sound pretty decent.

Normally I don't recomend to any audiophile that can goes with unipivot tonearms.

The real problem with unipivots is not only what we can " see " but what we can't " see " and that's happening at microscopic land down in the cartridge/tonearm grooves tracking where the stylus tip it's figth really hard against the grooves thatneeds to track and where in motion that stylus tip is disturbed for very strong developed forces in almost all directions along all the LP imperfections.
To achieve a decent job down there that stylus tip needs stability, the kind of stability a gimball tonearm can gives to it and that an unipivot can't.

Normally the LP grooves are recorded at different velocities depening of the score and in the high velocity grooves the stylus tip is literally jumping ( sometimes we listen that distortion level and sometimes we don't but exist. ) an unipivot only makes things worst.
Gimball tonearm permits to avoid that " behavior "? certainly not but helps in better way to that cartridge stylus tip to track in way better way and this is very important when we listen the reproduced sound by that cartridge.

Someone measured what happens down there and its differences between using a gimball tonearm against an unipivot? not that I know about.


The kind of question like in this thread in reallity it's open to each one way of thinking.

My experiences in " hundreds " of systems tells me gimball is the road to go " safety ".


Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.